The Richmond Shakespeare Society’s production of Florian Zeller’s play about dementia skilfully presents the damaging effects of this awful disease, writes Steve Davis...
OUR VERDICT
Zeller’s Molliere Award-winning play ‘Le Pere’ translated by Christopher Hampton is an episodic 15 scene play that never lets you know exactly where you are in the piece. By mirroring the disease it is concerned with, dementia, it subverts the audience’s sense of time, place and personalities so that we can share the fractured world of our protagonist.
Andre (Chris Haddock) is a man entering old age already afflicted with the disease. He’s troubled by a series of events, meetings and conversations that he can’t fully remember but feels everybody else is mistaken rather than he. His daughter, Anne (Lynne Harrison) is torn between her feelings of love, guilt and wanting to live her own life as she struggles to keep her father protected and contented.
This situation is not helped by the fact that Andre alienates a succession of ‘carers’ who he doesn’t remember, trust or in truth understand why they are there in the first place. Nor indeed by Andre’s insistence that he wants to see his other daughter, Elyse, who he makes no secret of the fact that he prefers to Anne.
Even if this production was not by the Richmond Shakespeare Company it would be difficult to ignore the parallels with King Lear. Although in this case the quote may be changed to “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless father”. This already tense scenario is exacerbated by Anne’s partner Pierre (Luciano Dodero) who is not just unsympathetic to Andre but potentially abusive.
As Andre battles to stop the ‘shadows closing in’ the rest of the cast (Laura-May Hassan, Peter Easterbrook and Lizzie Williams) appear and disappear as their own characters or each other’s only adding to Andre’s disorientation which is epitomised by his on-going contest to find his watch. Towards the end of the play, he describes his situation as if ‘the leaves have gone’ and one can only imagine his distress as one memory after another flutters out of reach.
The set (by Mike Read) is simple and effective and as elements of it are removed or brought back we sympathise with Andre’s inability to pin down what went there and indeed where ‘there’ is. The direction by Stephen Oliver is elegant and unobtrusive and allows the text to flourish.
There is no doubt that dementia is a horrific and harrowing affliction but Florian Zeller’s play allows the symptoms of it to be deftly observed whilst keeping this reviewer fully engaged.
Sunday 15th – Saturday 21st September at 7.45 pm at the Mary Wallace Theatre (more info here)
