Showing @ Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Thu 10 – Sat 12 Nov – run ended
As the elderly face potential alienation from the current government, an extra dimension of care has been thrust upon us, urging us to voice the opinions of our parents and grandparents. The relationship between a parent and child can be a tenuous, emotional, frustrating and powerful one, and it is this intangible notion explored and staged by practitioner and performer Donna Rutherford in her one-woman show.
Interviewing middle-aged performers from Quarantine, Reckless Sleepers and Forced Entertainment on the parent/child relationship, Rutherford hops between footage shown during the performance, to live monologues and direct addresses to the audience. As she moves across the stage from one screen to the next, she moves through time to sit at tables where she makes breakfast, tea and cocoa – symbolising the ritualistic nature of our home lives.
Rutherford is humble and sombre in her performance, quietly speaking into a headset microphone which closes the space and welcomes the audience in. As each interviewee explains their thoughts and feelings towards elderly parents, it’s an emotional build-up engaging in a discussion which we usually try to avoid – that of death, uncertainty and anger. This makes the show incredibly personal, as every member of the audience will attribute what is said to their own relationships, making the performance painful for some and confusing for others. Yet it feels the nature of this ‘being on the cusp of something’ needs to be probed more, as at just under an hour, the show still feels like a work in progress. Rutherford emphasises that her role is that of a conduit, a fairly vague term which is confused by her presence as a performer, singer, storyteller and narrator. There is therefore perhaps more of a theatrical framework to be teased out lurking beneath the documentary format of her piece; indeed the show unearths an emotional and necessary discussion, it just requires greater development of the final product.