Really Old, Like Forty-Five
Cottesloe, in rep until 20 April
Stage Fright
Canal Café, until 20 February
This is what the National is for. A little-known writer Tamsin Oglesby has been given a chance to shine on the Cottesloe stage. Her Alzheimer’s play sets out to give the age-old issue of old age a brisk shake-up. We’re in the near-future. A sinister new health trust, The Ark, has been set up to grapple with the problem of granny-management. Ruthless bureaucrats discuss hardline policies. Motorway-style lanes should be imposed on pavements to allow athletic pedestrians to speed past dawdling wrinklies. A new wonder-drug has been discovered whose hidden side effect is death. ‘Ten per cent of old people suffer from dementia,’ says the chief policy-maker. ‘Let’s not forget that because they certainly will.’
After a few more one-liners, we shift to a complex and asymmetrical family setting.
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