JAMIE BRITTON recommends that we all buy at least two copies of a remarkable book of poems
If You Fall
Bristol Old Vic
AD-INFINITUM’S flair for physical theatre and effective use of a cappella singing is imaginatively employed to create an upbeat yet moving portrayal of the world of the infirm elderly and care homes, which is not the normal atmosphere associated with the pains and trials of traumatic end-of-life scenarios.
The intergenerational, multiracial cast of six integrate the lives of two individuals as they face the desolation of old age with a loss of dignity, confidence and security that comes with incapacity, both mental and physical.
Margaret, played with a real joie de vivre by Heather Williams, is introduced to us first as she vigorously rejects her bland eulogy that shows no grasp of who she was and what she did and only focuses on what she had become after an accident caused by vascular dementia that leaves her bed-bound and totally dependent on others.
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
MAYER WAKEFIELD is gripped by a production dives rapidly from champagne-quaffing slick to fraying motormouth
JAN WOOLF is beguiled by the tempting notion that Freud psychoanalysed Hitler in a comedy that explores the vulnerability of a damaged individual
GORDON PARSONS is disappointed by an unsubtle production of this comedy of upper middle class infidelity


