There are some very worrying statistics quoted in the programme for Tamsin Oglesby’s dark, new and somewhat haphazardly structured comedy which tackles the consequences of an increasingly ageing population.
Hopefully, the powers that be won’t resort to the measures Ogilvy envisages 40 years in the future, when available parents are in such short supply that the elderly regularly adopt teenagers. This is exactly what Judy Parfitt’s Lyn decides to do, but there’s a family crisis brewing as her once astute academic brain succumbs to the ravages of Alzheimer’s and an increasing frequency of senior moments.
Meanwhile her younger sister Alice (Marcia Warren – delightfully optimistic and with a naïve trust in what science has to offer) finds that her body is showing signs of deterioration and, in a
desperate attempt to hold off the inevitable, their actor brother Robbie (Gawn Grainger) dresses like someone a fraction of his age and dates a succession of unseen girls young enough to be his granddaughters.
Help is at hand, however, at the Ark, an experimental institute presided over by policy official Monroe (a terrifyingly heartless and manic Paul Ritter) and his team. But the books have to be balanced and a profit needs to be made – and it doesn’t take much to persuade them to manipulate research results and market what was intended to be a cure for dementia as a handy drug to aid euthanasia instead.
Anna Mackmin’s well-acted, split-level production (designed by Lez Brotherston) doesn’t quite succeed in marrying up Oglesby’s somewhat wayward strands, aspects of which owe a debt to Ayckbourn. But there’s more than enough humour and heartfelt truth here to sustain the evening, thanks in no small measure to a knockout performance by Michela Meazza, putting her dance background to excellent use as Mimi the robot nurse who has not only been programmed to offer an empathetic stroke on the arm but also purrs like a contented cat.
Hopefully, the powers that be won’t resort to the measures Ogilvy envisages 40 years in the future, when available parents are in such short supply that the elderly regularly adopt teenagers. This is exactly what Judy Parfitt’s Lyn decides to do, but there’s a family crisis brewing as her once astute academic brain succumbs to the ravages of Alzheimer’s and an increasing frequency of senior moments.
Meanwhile her younger sister Alice (Marcia Warren – delightfully optimistic and with a naïve trust in what science has to offer) finds that her body is showing signs of deterioration and, in a
desperate attempt to hold off the inevitable, their actor brother Robbie (Gawn Grainger) dresses like someone a fraction of his age and dates a succession of unseen girls young enough to be his granddaughters.
Help is at hand, however, at the Ark, an experimental institute presided over by policy official Monroe (a terrifyingly heartless and manic Paul Ritter) and his team. But the books have to be balanced and a profit needs to be made – and it doesn’t take much to persuade them to manipulate research results and market what was intended to be a cure for dementia as a handy drug to aid euthanasia instead.
Anna Mackmin’s well-acted, split-level production (designed by Lez Brotherston) doesn’t quite succeed in marrying up Oglesby’s somewhat wayward strands, aspects of which owe a debt to Ayckbourn. But there’s more than enough humour and heartfelt truth here to sustain the evening, thanks in no small measure to a knockout performance by Michela Meazza, putting her dance background to excellent use as Mimi the robot nurse who has not only been programmed to offer an empathetic stroke on the arm but also purrs like a contented cat.
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