Dementia is phenomenally painful condition for the elderly
generation in which all of their fondest memories will in time vanish from their
brains, yet what transpires if their cerebral thoughts turn into childlike
behaviour? The Tricycle Theatre’s production of Florian Zeller’s play, ‘The
Father’, that has been shrewdly translated into English by Christopher Hampton
is a terrifically written piece of dramatic art, on top of this the enactments
by the company were flawless.
‘The Father’ is set in Paris, France where we are introduced
to 80 year old Andre who we believe was once an engineer, but he thinks he was
a former professional dancer. At present, due to Andre’s radical memory loss he
has been forced to live with his daughter, Anne and her husband, Pierre where
he is constantly wearing his pyjamas and complains that he’s misplaced his
expensive watch where he ponders that his carers have stolen it. Throughout the
performance, Andre’s daughter Anne is gradually becoming more concerned about
Andre’s health that she turns to being his full-time carer. Nonetheless, her
male lover, Pierre her husband and Man (Jim Sturgeon) soon gravitates to jealousy,
in which Pierre upsets and torments Andre to the point where Andre cries like a
little boy. In direct contrast to this, Andre assumes that Anne’s apartment is
in fact his own and he squeals when furniture is removed, this is due to the fact
that Anne is on route to move from Paris to London. As you would expect this
continues to cause Andre a lot of discomfort and vagueness into what is arising
in his life. Anne hires another carer, Laura (Jade Williams) to look after
Andre, but unlike his previous carers the relationship proves to be quite
fruitful as according to Andre she reminds him of his deceased daughter, on the
other hand, Andre cannot recollect that his youngest has died. Once Anne relocates to London, Andre has moved
to a residential home for the elderly where his nurse (Rebecca Charles) is on
hand to attend Andre’s every need. At this stage, Andre’s dementia and his physiological
wellbeing has drastically deteriorated where he is acting like a little boy
that is mollycoddled by his nurse and at the finale it is tragic to learn that
he has passed away from natural causes. Zeller’s narrative is seamless as he
has crafted a script that is vastly stimulating as we’re witnessing the decline
of one man’s mind and how he cannot remember any of his memories whatsoever and
Zeller does combine humour and tear jerking moments with grandeur.
One found the performances by the company of, ‘The Father’
to be faultless as they capture both the comedy and heart-wrenching moments
with such effect. Kenneth Cranham is textbook as central protagonist, Andre;
largely where comes across somewhat discombobulated that hasn’t lived in his
own flat for some time, moreover his breakdown in the home for the elderly was
distressing. Claire Skinner is delightful as Andre’s daughter, Anne; primarily
how upsetting it is for her to see her own father’s life dwindling in front of
her own eyes and his does cause her relationship with Pierre to become ‘on the
rocks’. Colin Tierney is fabulous as Anne’s husband, Pierre; for example how Andre’s
presence is forcing him to take all of his anger towards Andre in a shocking
and violent manner, as well as, he seems to present a dark and sinister tone within
the show.
James Macdonald’s direction is picture-perfect he as he has encapsulated
a moving and side-splitting representation of an ageing man whose entire existence
is at the brink of despair and the detailing of the characterisations is vastly
entrancing. Miriam Buether’s design is exceptional as she has directed us to a
Parisian atmosphere where the white walls can resemble those of emptiness of
Andre’s mind due to his dementia and the lack of hope of his improvement.
Overall, he experience of, ‘The Father’ o be a moving piece of theatre that
leaves you thinking you need to protect the senior citizens of society.
No comments:
Post a Comment