By Emma
Link for Rosa: https://originaltheatreonline.com/productions/17/barnes-people-rosa-starring-jemma-redgrave
Link to set of four monologues: https://originaltheatreonline.com/productions/14/barnes-people-complete-series
Available until: 31st July 2021
Rosa is a sad story but it really makes you think. You hear a lot of horror stories about people whose job it is to help the vulnerable. They speak to the elderly and the disabled as though they’re stupid. They take children away from parents who love them and leave children with their abusers. They make decisions on other people’s behalf and if anyone dares to argue that just proves they weren’t fit to make the decision in the first place.
There are some bad people in these ‘supportive’ jobs. There are bad people in every job.
But there are probably good people in every job too. There are probably some really lovely drug dealers (not that this monologue is about drug dealers) who just don’t know any other way of surviving. And there are probably also some really lovely people whose job it is to make decisions about vulnerable people’s futures.
Dr Rosa Hamilton is someone who makes a lot of these decisions. I think she’s a good person. She works with the elderly and decides if they need to go into nursing homes. Peter Barnes has kind of written this in two parts. The first part is Rosa reading out case notes of three of the elderly people she’s worked with. The second part is Rosa talking about herself and her job and how it makes her feel. It’s really interesting getting to know her as a worker and a human being.
Rosa’s case notes tell you about three different families. Three different situations. Several elderly people who are all different people with their own personalities. But that doesn’t matter. Rosa has to follow the rules. If the rules say that someone needs to go into a nursing home, then they have to go. And Rosa has seen what the nursing homes are like.
There are some sad stories in this monologue and that includes Rosa’s story. So many years of hard work. Qualifying as a doctor and finally taking this job. A job that isn’t really about happy endings. It’s just about endings. Anyone who really didn’t care would probably be good at this sort of job because all they have to do is follow the rules but if you do care, it’s going to get to you eventually. Rosa cares.
Jemma Redgrave is brilliant at Rosa. She has already played a doctor on Holby City and she makes all the medical stuff sound so natural. She sounds like she knows what it all means and she probably does. To start off with she is very businesslike, she just reads it all out mostly calmly but sometimes there’s a bit of irony in how she says things.
Later on, you can tell she’s tired, that she’s had enough, that she doesn’t want to do this anymore. But you can also see she’s really intelligent and she’s really good at her job. She knows exactly what she has to do. She’s decisive. She’s not weak. But she knows when enough is enough and you can feel the emotion behind the calmness which keeps almost breaking through.
The play makes you think about other things too, like where Rosa will end up. She’ll probably get another job but what about after that? But not just that. Where your family will end up. Where you will end up.
It’s a scary play that makes you think about things which
you probably don’t really want to but that’s part of why it’s so good.
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