Home  Reviews "...compassionate, humorous and astute dramatic observation" |
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"...compassionate, humorous and astute dramatic observation" |
Off her trolley is 50 mins of compassionate, humorous and astute dramatic observation of the process of dementia, the feelings surrounding it, and the provisions existing in the private healthcare section to care for it.
Bennet, with her own experience of working in private healthcare as a carer, exposes sensitively the experiences of those around a person suffering from dementia to produce a rounded view of the emotional environment provoked by, as well as the provisions to care for this increasingly manifesting disease in society. She does this with the creation of three role-played perspectives, firstly, the experienced more senior carer figure, then the inexperienced yet well-versed on NVQ rubric younger student reciting the rules to the audience from a more emotionally disconnected place. The third perspective is offered through the family member visiting the resident. Torn apart by guilt and their own vicarious loss of identity they see, as their surrogate mother’s Alzheimer’s condition progresses, their own key life connections and values slide, eroding their mutual sense of life’s meaning.
The play through the relentless practically of the older carer and sharp awareness of the younger carer ‘uncomplainingly’ tackles the social and political implications about how the work of carers is valued. Shockingly awarded the minimum wage rate and attracting the exploitation of immigrant workers the current management of the profession in much of the private health care sector leads to exhaustion and inexperience entering the working relationship of both carers and the cared for. By the end, through the role of the more experienced and mature carer we see the subtle decline through forgetfulness and scattered attention we can all recognise, into the mindless mantra of repetition in what we know as dementia.
This insightful and entertaining piece is created through simple props effecting seamless character transitions. Levoy Wilson’s unobtrusive and supportive soundtrack creates a comfortable chair for our easy listening and receptivity. The song ‘We wipe bums’ provides a sing-along witty commentary and dramatic landscape of a carer’s life that Bertolt Brecht could be proud of! Behind it all, the writing is on the wall with projected quotes from those experiencing Alzheimer’s directly. In the dark of the auditorium we are encouraged to look and at the same time learn. We are also offered the gentle invitation to perform our own dreaded enquiry that if this could happen to us all how do we value life each day, and if it did happen, how do we set in place for ourselves the mechanisms and provisions so we are also still valued, loved and cared for through it.
A worthy nominee for an Amnesty International Award for Freedom of Expression, this important piece of theatre destined for this year’s Edinburgh Festival is a tender work of art for our time and the time of our life. In the final scene, revealing there is no separation in the human condition, the carer loo roll in hand sitting on the seat of dreams, exhorts us in ways reminiscent of Richard Bach’s ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ to live the present moment fully, and in that fly.
Eleanor Bennet in ‘Off her trolley!’ could set the example by going far!
Bernadette Reed © Preview 19th July 2008, The Lion and the Unicorn Theatre, Kentish Town, London |
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