5 – 15 April
If You Fall is billed as a show about ‘care, love and the end of our lives,’ but despite the range of emotion that implies, it delivers even more than that. Based around the lived experience of older people, their loved ones and their carers, Ad Infinitum theatre company follow the journeys of people living through the most poignant of days as death approaches and faculties diminish.
The intergenerational ensemble of six handle numerous roles while focussing on two very realistic stories told with equal passion, humour and skill.
We first meet Margaret, (Heather Williams) who is rightfully incensed that her funeral eulogy only covers the last two difficult years of her life without reflecting on her achievements as a pillar of the local community, nor her tandem ride from John O’Groats to Lands End. This of course was all before she lost her independence after a fall. Now, why did she leave that book on the stairs? Family tensions about what to do with a mother who is now totally reliant on others tears an emotional fissure between siblings, revealing the strains that society places on caring for the elderly.
The carers, so often pilloried as hard-hearted automatons, are instead revealed as compassionate human beings struggling to deal with the almost impossible while retaining a firm hold on dignity. A grim yet convincing explanation of the process of dealing with a bedridden person’s intimate personal toilet regime provides a sobering counterpoint to the humour that flows throughout the seventy minute piece.
Norson’s story is sadly all too familiar. Slipping into bewilderment and uncertainty as early onset dementia sets in, Kirris Riviere superbly portrays the confusion, rage and despair that results. His son Conor (Jabari Ngozi) struggles heroically, along with other family members, attempting to do his best while wondering whether anything he does will ever be enough.
Expertly directed by Helena Middleton and originally conceived by Nir Paldi, If You Fall employs sensitive use of acapella singing, rhythms and verbal repetition to plot the way through dementia, death and grief, which in less adroit hands could be clumsy. Composer and sound designer Jack Drewry conjures up real emotion in a trice and each one of the talented cast’s characterisations ring true, while the realism generated adds up to a high intensity performance.
A simple clinical set consisting of an ever-moving hospital bed, horizontal skewed slats and one or two chairs are brilliantly handled in a fluid array of scenes, reminiscences and thrilling motion.
If You Fall succeeds in bringing real personal testimonies to life to tell a vital, profound and ultimately uplifting story about the pain of the human condition engaged in making the final journey. Ad Infinitum have produced a truly transformative piece of theatre about care, love and the end of people’s lives, whilst also breaking down barriers about valuing what each individual has brought to their time on earth.
★★★★★ Bryan J Mason, 12th April 2023
Photo credit: Camilla Adams
