THE OLD HOUSE (The Actors Centre)*****

By Louise

Link: https://www.actorscentre.co.uk/theatre-on-demand/the-old-house/about £8

Available until: 3rd January 2021. When you rent it, you have 48 hours to watch it.

One of the first plays I ever reviewed was Watching Rosie by Louise Coulthard, an Original Theatre Online production. It was about an old lady with dementia.

The Old House is also about an old lady with dementia – in this case it’s Alzheimer’s - but it’s a very different story. I think that’s really important to tell different stories. Everyone with some form of dementia is likely to have similar symptoms, but they are all individuals and they all have their own story.

The Old House focuses a bit more on the sad side of Alzheimer’s. The memory problems. The difficulties with looking after yourself. The struggle to understand the world around you. There is a lot of warmth and love in The Old House, but there is also a deep sense of sadness and loss.

It also shows how difficult, frustrating and heartbreaking it can be for the person who looks after them. I really like the fact that writer Kate Maravan, who plays both the characters in this play, has been honest about the fact that the people who look after their unwell relatives are not perfect. They make mistakes. They have emotions too. Although some people might criticise the character of the Daughter for becoming impatient and even angry sometimes, I really admire Ms Maravan’s honesty and I think it might be reassuring for people in who are in the Daughter’s situation for real and are really struggling. It must also be really difficult for the Daughter to see the Mum like that.

The Mum in this play is often confused and sometimes frightened. She forgets some things easily and quickly. She is struggling to look after herself. But Ms Maravan presents her as someone who is intelligent and imaginative. She might not see the world as it is, but she navigates around it with her own sense of logic. She also has a sense of dignity and that is a good thing. She is embarrassed about some of the things she does and she wants to be treated with respect. It is so sad to see the effects of her illness and the fear and confusion she sometimes feels, but she is a strong and admirable character too. She doesn’t give up. She fights to know the world which is slipping away from her.

The Daughter can be impatient at times. She says and does things which could be considered wrong, but which could also be considered right. She has trouble with the idea of ‘playing along’. But underneath it all there is a sense of tragedy. Not just because of the way her Mum is changing. The way the Daughter is clearly desperate not to see it happen.

Kath Burlinson directs a production which is focused, sensitive and often dreamlike. In the play, the Daughter takes the Mum to the Old House, a place where the Mum was very happy. But I don’t think it’s really about going back to the old house. I think it’s more that she wants to go back to the old memories – and to the person she feels her Mum used to be. That is really sad because it is so unlikely to happen and the Daughter must know that really, but she still really wants to try.

Kate Maravan is a wonderful storyteller. The language of the play is really lovely to listen to and really emotional. In a short series of scenes, she doesn’t just tell us the story of the short time the Mum and Daughter spend together in this play. She shows you a lot about their whole lives. It’s upsetting at times, but it has a beautiful honesty and simplicity. Ms Maravan’s mother in real life had Alzheimer’s and that was the inspiration for this play. The Daughter says something in the play about creating lasting memories by writing them down. I feel like this is what Ms Maravan has done. She tells the story with love and respect and I feel very lucky that I saw it.

Ms Maravan portrays both characters perfectly, switching easily between them. I think if I paused the video and then clicked randomly to take myself to another point in the play, there is a good chance I would know which role Ms Maravan is playing from her posture, facial expressions and mannerisms. She plays the Mum in way that feels as though she really does understand her, even if the Daughter doesn’t yet.

The play also has a lot of poetry and movement. Ms Maravan speaks the poetry beautifully and meaningfully. Her poems would be very special as standalone poems, but the fact they are in this play gives them a deeper meaning. Vincent Manna is the movement director and the movements are beautiful. Ms Maravan moves beautifully, but it’s not like she’s giving a performance. She is expressing the emotion the Mum is feeling through her body. She is showing the way the Mum’s mind glides from one topic to another and it’s beautiful. The whole play is beautiful.