Writer: Maureen Lennon
Director: Tom Bellerby
We first meet Helen when her husband dies in hospital. She has fallen asleep at the crucial moment when he takes his final breath. Instead, Helen’s daughter Becca is the witness to her father’s last seconds. The repercussions of his death will resonate far into the future.
The time period of 40-odd years that Maureen Lennon’s play covers is both Helen’s strength and its weakness. It’s interesting to chart how a loved one’s death influences family members years after the funeral arrangements have ended but the play loses focus as we dip into their lives over the years. We see Becca go to university and fight depression. Helen sells the family home. Becca gets marries. Helen battles alcoholism. Becca has a baby. Scenes are short and episodic.
Fortunately, the dialogue is strong and natural, and the two actors are at the top of their game. Jo Mousley makes Helen feel real; a woman who is happy enough although there is always a sense that she feels cheated in life, that another life might have been possible if she hadn’t tolerated her husband’s temper and his other misdemeanours. In a poignant moment, she tells her daughter that she would have liked to change her husband but was perfectly happy with the way he behaved as Becca’s father.
As Becca, Chloe Wade has to move from an abrasive teenager to a quiet middle-aged woman over the 85-minute play and she does very well in capturing the disappointments of life. Becca rarely seems happy, perhaps, the play implies, because her father died when she was still a child. Her mourning is never over.
Despite the play’s timespan, the best moments of the play happen in the opening and closing moments and the symmetry of these scenes is pleasing. Climbing over Alice Hallifax’s compact set, mother and daughter throw the ashes of Becca’s father off a mountainside. In the publicity photos for the show, the ashes are contained in a silver urn, but in this production, the ashes are stored in what looks like a sandwich bag. This decision adds a touch of humour to a poignant scene.
Runs until 27 May 2023
The Reviews Hub Score
Feels real
