ESCAPED ALONE (Theatr Clwyd)***

By Cal

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_XDgLRg1kA

Available until: Theatr Clwyd productions are usually available for about 48 hours so probably until the evening of 5^th December. But don’t quote me on it.

It took me a little while to get into this. I did start to get into it eventually, but the play is so short (fifty minutes), I was more than halfway through by then.

It’s the story of four elderly ladies who meet in the garden for a chat and that’s a bit outside my experience. At first, I had a bit of trouble working out who was who and relating to what they were talking about, and there were some confusing moments where the subject was abruptly changed. I think that was because the play is supposed to be several afternoon meetings which are merged into one long scene, but I wasn’t sure.

It’s possible this play will be more accessible to older people or to women – I don’t know. But I do think the very greatest plays aren’t those which only appeal to a particular group of people and it’s not like I have a problem with elderly characters. There are loads of brilliant elderly characters in fiction (I was watching Sir John Falstaff just a few hours ago), though I think not all of them would like me referring to them in that way!

To start with, the women were mostly gossiping and that didn’t interest me very much, but I did enjoy the play a lot more when the conversation became more personal and I began to empathise with their emotions, even if I couldn’t quite imagine their lives. I would say they were all suffering from some form of mental health problems. Lena has depression; Sally suffers from anxiety connected to her ailurophobia (just one of the words for a fear of cats); it would probably be more surprising if Vi didn’t have post-traumatic stress disorder and Mrs Jarrett’s obsession with apocalyptic scenarios is certainly rather worrying.

Sian Howard, in the role of Sally, was the first to catch my attention. She can be quite prickly, but her fear of even talking about cats was tangible and her descriptions of experiences when she thought there might be a cat nearby is very moving and it’s sad that there doesn’t seem to be anyone in her life who’s willing to do a c** sweep for her. I would! As Vi, Lynne Verrall slides sneakily from querulousness into outright bitchiness, but she really has been through something terrible which she’s clearly never come to terms with.

Ishia Bennison (whom I was sure I recognised and I was right: she was a hilarious Nurse in a RSC Romeo & Juliet) is the rather quiet Lena, often overwhelmed by her own sadness (and maybe by the fact the others are so talkative) but always there to jump in to defend someone. Susan Brown plays Mrs Jarrett, the interloper: the neighbour who sees the other three in the garden and decides to join them. She seems like the brisk type who is very good at organising others and will take that to the extent of trying to organise their opinions too. Her speeches about the apocalypse could seem rather out of character but Susan makes it work.

It’s a bit of a strange one, but even if you’re not sure about the story, it’s a great opportunity to see four really great actors working together and finding sense in a play which I’m not sure I’d have found if I’d been reading instead of watching.