Ginger Rogers famously danced backwards in high heels. In this new play, two women learn to dance together again to a new set of tricky steps.
The respective expertise of Strange Theatre and Plutôt la Vie has been brought together to throw a difficult and painful topic in to high relief with a combination of storytelling, physicality, theatricality and dark comedy that gives insight to life as a carer of an Alzheimer’s patient.
Since her magician husband disappeared leaving her with two children, Elspeth (Hilde McKenna) has ‘choreographed’ an ordered life of her own as a dancer, running a dance school as well as being a single parent. Her unmarried daughter Lilly (Liz Strange) is living in London and starting out on her own career. (Her married- with- kids son Michael is only ever referred to but is perpetually forgiven for his absence.) On a visit to her old home, Lilly starts to see alarming signs of Alzheimer’s in her ageing parent and quickly adjusts her life so she can look after her mother while balancing her job remotely.
The sound of ‘40s big band music sets the scene of Elspeth’s hey day. The set from Alice Wilson is a cosy living room interior on whose wall sits a suitably wonky clock with some numbers missing. Lilly narrates her mother’s past life that appears over the piece like a pop-up book as Elspeth spills open the piles of cases that hold her old mementos.
Under the smooth choreography by Malcolm Shields, mother and daughter tap out a duet with hospital walking sticks instead of silver canes before order turns to chaos and their terpsichorean steps turn to a smothering dance of dependence. The parental role is reversed bringing to the fore all the stress, tensions and frustrations that can take even a loving person close to killing.
Watching the neat and orderly Elspeth go from pouring the fountain of sugar to spewing a river of profanities is reminiscent of the sentiments of the Kristy McColl song "Walking Down Madison". McColl sings about how close we all are to social ruin but the play shows how rapid the road to bewilderment can be. As Elspeth creates her own fairyland by draping satin bunting, the inference is that her new world may not be entirely unpleasant.
The tragic process is shown in the skill of Morna Pearson’s writing that is a brilliant comic cornucopia of word confusion, like her daughter having the ‘power of eternity’, expressed with oblivious smiling nonchalance by McKenna. The frantic treadmill of daily life of caring as she juggles what seems like a million tasks is performed with skill and agility by Strange.
The variety of music, credited to Daniel Krass, is spot on for each aspect of the piece to which Tim Licata brings skillful direction.
The play reflects that statistically it is women who take on the role of carer though the problems it highlights could apply to either gender. The play’s title is a poignant subversion of the accepted meaning of the phrase ‘couldn’t care less’. Carers like Lilly couldn’t care more. In the month when Scientists at the University of Leicester made a discovery that has been hailed as the "turning point" in the fight against Alzheimer's disease, one whose victims are set to rise, this is a timeous and relevant piece of theatre.
Show times
17 Oct - 19 Oct 2013, 8pm
Age recommend 12+
Tickets
£15.50 (£12.50/£8)
Tour continues