This latest play by Roger Hall has been running at Wellington’s Circa Theatre since February 23, but for various reasons we were unable to get to it until last night. No matter, it was a comedy treat, and the theatre was packed, a sign that Hall sure still knows how to pen a hit.
Rest homes, retirement homes, call them what you will, these are dreadful places, where about one in 10 of our elderly go to wait for God. They are also big business now, with many listed on the stock exchange and owned by multinational corporates. Hall’s play is about a few weeks in the lives of four men in the (fictitious) Victoria Regina Rest Home in Wellington. The name seems to have been chosen not to make jokes about Queen Victoria but so one of the characters, former All Black Leo (Peter Hambleton) can say it should have been called Vagina because the place is a cunt to live in. It brought the house down when he said it.
It begins with Leo and silver-tongued former lawyer Edwin (Ray Henwood) returning from the funeral of one of the residents. Death is a constant backdrop to the story. In real life and this play, most rest home inmates are women, and Leo and Edwin are two of only four men in the place, the others being Charles (Ken Blackburn) a former professor now near-crippled by a stroke and unable to speak, and new arrival Alan (George Henare), a Coromandel potter with Alzheimers, dumped in the home by his wife, who is tired of caring for him.
The plot abounds with funny lines, wit and humour about how the four fill interminably long days that are punctuated by regimented meal breaks, funerals and game sessions. But for me this was essentially a play of pathos and sadness. All Alan wants to do is escape (until he begins having an affair with a woman two floors above, whose husband is unhappy about it). Charles has a quick mind terribly imprisoned in his stroke-afflicted body. Leo keeps soiling his pants and has urination problems caused by a prostate operation. The underpaid, overworked staff bully and in some genuinely shocking scenes even physically beat them.
Jude Gibson and Jane Waddell play seven characters between them, nurses, other staff and spouses, giving wickedly funny, and at times plain wicked, performances. Henwood, Hambleton, Blackburn and Henare are as accomplished as you would expect, with their characters believable and deserving of sympathy.
Having men as the main characters means, unusually, that men’s health problems, especially of the prostate and other plumbing kinds, get a rare public outing, with one caustic line reminding the audience that there are no ribbon appeals for men’s health issues the way there are for women’s. Indeed, the script, and acting, are notable for the way they portray the growing closeness of the men, as a result of their having to spend so much time together, and the kindness the other three show to Charles.
At two and a half hours, this is a very long play but the pace rarely slows. By the end, I was even more determined to die rather than ever be shoved in a rest home.
Who wants to be 100? Anyone who’s 99, by Roger Hall, directed by Ross Jolly, starring Jude Gibson, Ray Henwood, Peter Hambleton, Ken Blackburn, George Henare, Jane Waddell. Circa Theatre, Wellington, until May 3. ****
2 Comments
April 13, 2008 at 9:23 pm
I was at last night’s performance too, and agree with your review. A good, well-written play and some great performances. Peter Hambleton in particular was very good – especially in the scene when his daughter came to visit.
Was struck by the demographic of the audience though – the overwhelming majority looked like they were only 5-10 years away from a rest home themselves!
April 14, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I too have been to Roger Hall’s play, I found it very sad and upsetting, the violence of the staff distressed me, the waiting to die scenario was sad in the extreme. I found it the hardest of Hall’s plays to handle maybe because it manages to encapsulate the worst of that period of ones life, offering a window to the future that I find unpalatable. I found it difficult to laugh during this play as I felt I was suddenly laughing at rather than with the actors who represented these people. A powerful show all round but maybe not a comedy for me.