I went alone, but was joined on the C-train by most passengers dressed in their red jersey's going to the hockey game. I met them going and coming back home.
What a conversation I could have with anyone who saw a different show as I did.
1. How about the title, Allelujah!? Just the word can either bring Leonard Cohen to mind, or Handel? But without the exclamation point.
I felt myself singing along when I heard the tune, "All creatures of our God and King ... Allelujah ....".
2. I couldn't get enough of the costuming and the props. The walkers, the tin pan to bang, the slippers, the wrapped legs and feet, the striped pyjamas, the greasy hair hanging down over the forehead, the headphones, the tangerine sweater, etc.
3. Deborah Findley was Sister Alma Gilchrist, a chilling protagonist. Her descent, for me, from being loved into having feelings of such distaste for her was so rapid.
4. What was the name of the woman who had on pink barrettes, who was still wearing false eye lashes, who kept applying her make-up and who carried a compact (ha ha and not a telephone) with her and kept refreshing her make-up? Oh, I just loved every move of that character.
5. And I woke up with the words, "My house", echoing in my ears. Just a terrific performance by her and by her daughter and son-in-law, as well. And in that respect, how about going through the last effects of what was in the woman's locker when she died. Saving a little food from last night's dinner? That kind of humour just had me in stitches inside.
6. This morning I was also thinking about all of those end-of-life decisions. One of them being waiting too long in life to really have a say in an end of life decision. What kind of decision was that. And other questions like who has a say when life is prolonged, or when it is made more enjoyable (with a little song and dance)?
7. Confronting the issue of "if a person is well enough to go home, is there a home to go to?"? Ouch to that being painful. Or how about the issue of blatant racism when hiring hospital staff: use Phillipino care givers to take care of the old and send Indian doctors back home, wherever home is? And that telephone in the hands of the nurse -- using it to presage an immanent death to the corporation, or in real life to the family. Just wonderful workings of images and metaphors.
8. Didn't that last soliloquy remind you, in tone, of some others in poetry and in the movies, one of which has just escaped my mind. You know, the movie about the beloved teacher in the boy's school. Maybe someone will remember the name of that for me in the comments section?
:-)
9. A play about old people? Death? Failing hearing (s)? Bringing fresh air in where there is the stench of urine? Those with capacity speaking to those who have lost capacity? I would like to see the play again. Maybe I will just go out and read a number of reviews now that I have so much bubbling up in me about the show.
Anyone else see the play?
Arta
im so sad this didn't play here!
ReplyDeleteI can't figure out why NT Live doesn't show in your community, since you have plenty of old people, or should I say older people who may like the show. Having said that, there couldn't have been 20, at the very most 30 in our theatre. And 30 would have been a stretch.
ReplyDeleteWell, I still keep waking up wanting to say more about the show: a clip where the pills are given out in sacrament cups, the patients all lined up in a row and someone travels by with their pill dispensary cart giving them pills and then returns picking up the cups. It has taken me longer to type this, that it took to dispense the pills.
Another funny, but heart-rending scene, was a birthday party -- all of the old people in their party hats and pyjamas.
I don't know if it will come back in the Encore series. They have brought back Frankenstein many times now. And The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.
Alan Bennet's "The Madness of King George" is coming later this month. And a Klimt show from the Gallery Series. Well, you know me, I will keep you apprised ...