Skip to main content

In Other Words

The Studio, Edinburgh

Four stars

 

When Arthur met Jane, it was love at first spillage. In a crowded bar accidentally serenaded by a Frank Sinatra soundtrack, the red wine might have stained, but the merry dance the couple in waiting stepped out into was all part of Arthur’s plan. A lifetime and the onset of dementia later, alas, Arthur and Jane may sit next to each other like bookends, but Arthur can barely remember either of their names. As soon as their song comes on, however, they are loving each other to the moon and back once more. 

 

Matthew Seager’s beautifully realised two-hander tackles the cruellest of illnesses and the redemptive power of music in exquisitely intimate fashion. Performed by Seager himself as Arthur and Lydia White stepping into Jane’s shoes, the power of Andy Routledge’s production comes in its quiet understatement. As Arthur becomes increasingly dependent on Jane, Jane is overwhelmed by a life she never planned. As Seager and White step out of Arthur and Jane’s domestic privacy occasionally to address the audience in character with snippets of inner monologue, it brings home an all too recognisable everyday tragedy. 

 

Seager’s play has become a much-loved treasure of the small scale touring circuit over the last few years. This latest outing has found a champion in The Utley Foundation, whose Music for Dementia campaign recognises the vital part music can play in caring for Alzheimer’s patients. As an artistic expression of their aims, In Other Words shows how a special song can bring memories back to life in a gently delivered production driven by empathy and warmth. 


The Herald, May 5th 2025

 

Ends 

 

 

 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Passage – Hip Rebel Degenerates: Black, White and Red All Over

Prelude – The Power of Three   Fear. Power. Love. This life-and-death (un)holy trinity was the driving force and raisons d’être of The Passage, the still largely unsung Manchester band sired in what we now call the post-punk era, and who between 1978 and 1983 released four albums and a handful of singles.    Led primarily by composer Dick Witts, The Passage bridged the divide between contemporary classical composition and electronic pop as much as between the personal and the political. In the oppositional hotbed of Margaret Thatcher’s first landslide, The Passage fused agit-prop and angst, and released a song called Troops Out as a single. The song offered unequivocal support for withdrawing British troops from Northern Ireland.    They wrote Anderton’s Hall, about Greater Manchester’s born again right wing police chief, James Anderton, and, on Dark Times, rubbed Brechtian polemic up against dancefloor hedonism. On XOYO, their most commercial and potentially mo...
Post a Comment
Read more