Not Getting Any Younger
Care (Young Vic) Guest Review by Dr Terror
To paraphrase The Usual Suspects, the greatest trick Richard Osman ever pulled was convincing you your old age would be extremely agreeable. You would, in fact, spend it in a retirement home slightly larger than Leeds Castle, with llamas (or possibly alpacas, I can never remember the difference) wandering about and the kind of meals Marcus Waring would find a bit of a faff to prepare. Your friends would be Helen Mirren who, like all female national treasures, used to run MI6, Ghandi-as-a-mild-mannered-accountant and - get this! - a former firebrand trade union leader who was not, as you might expect, Ray Winstone (or possibly Tom Hardy or Danny Dyer in heavy makeup) but Pierce Brosnan. Pierce Brosnan! James Bond himself!
Needless to say, this has made Mr Osman incredibly rich. However, if you are taken in by any of this (or perhaps expecting a decent whodunnit), jog on.
Which brings me to death. It's kind of my job (my job? Have you not guessed?) In the same week as this, I caught Beetlejuice at the Prince Edward, as funny as I had hoped but also surprisingly insightful about mortality and grief. And this remarkable play was as insightful as I had hoped about mortality and grief, but also surprisingly funny.
It sustained this for over two hours without an interval and I was utterly gripped the whole time. With its totally realistic sets (I wondered for a minute if I was in the Young Vic at all or next door in an actual care home), it begins like a situation comedy, but instead of a badly-run hotel in Torquay or a fading department store, it's set in a care home where everyone is in varying states of impairment and dementia.
The key character is a granny played amazingly well by Linda Bassett. That her daughter is Rosie Cavaliero, instantly recognisable from This Time with Alan Partridge, Friday Night Dinner, Peep Show, Inside Number Nine etc. accentuates the vibe I'm talking about. Superlative acting helps gently transition this into something far less comfortable but infinitely moving. The ensemble cast is flawless but special plaudits should go to William Lawler and Charlie Webb playing the two teenaged grandsons and to Llewella Gideon playing a care worker we all hope will be with us as we near the end, the fact that she is working twenty hours a day etched on her every facial expression and body movement.
To say too much more would spoil it for those planning to see this but I urge you so much to do so. It is a truly remarkable piece of theatre. It is honest about what a care home is like and what we all face as we get older. And you know what? I took a lot of comfort from it.