September 10, 2008
The winds of change, in the form of grey-suited council officials, enter into Connie and Wilfred’s back-to-back terraced house, which has been earmarked for demolition. One council official who duly notes the residents’ every move to ensure any future abode supports the couple’s lifestyle is hiding something, which is effortlessly revealed by Janet Bird’s mobile set. The true to life living room built on stage documents the high level of control even geriatric hit and run victim Wilfred (David Troughton) can have over their life. It is debatable whether the promised modern low rise flat can equal the convenience of monitoring unwanted visitors through the nets, filtering communication through the letter box and nipping to the corner to fetch a helpful neighbour. Faced with an extreme malady Connie calls on Mrs Clegg (Carol Macready) who extols the virtues of a community keeping in touch with the process of births and deaths rather than outsourcing tasks such as washing the body to strangers. The growing clinical presence of the grey-suits in the living room does not bode well in this hilarious scene which garners Macready a well-deserved round of applause.
With most of the other streets in this Leeds suburb now knocked down the battle seems all but lost as the family falls apart subtly like the bricks and mortar that once kept them safe. Daughter Linda (Josie Walker) is vampish, brutal and represents a city intent on moving with the times. Alison Steadman as Connie mines the rich humour of Alan Bennett’s lines such as, ‘My mother lost her memory. I think.’ Whilst laughter peals from different sections of the theatre and builds throughout the two and a half hour running time, just like the set this comic work is also dark and moving.
With most of the other streets in this Leeds suburb now knocked down the battle seems all but lost as the family falls apart subtly like the bricks and mortar that once kept them safe. Daughter Linda (Josie Walker) is vampish, brutal and represents a city intent on moving with the times. Alison Steadman as Connie mines the rich humour of Alan Bennett’s lines such as, ‘My mother lost her memory. I think.’ Whilst laughter peals from different sections of the theatre and builds throughout the two and a half hour running time, just like the set this comic work is also dark and moving.