Janie loved this piece. In truth, I found it a little mawkish.
The short scenes only occasionally allowed enough space for the emotional impact to flourish.
To be fair, the piece did “exactly what it says on the tin”, in terms of cataloguing the deaths that enter the orbit of one character, Graciela, throughout her life.
Being The Finborough, of course it was all very well acted and extremely well produced, within the limitations of one of the most pint-sized theatres above a pub anywhere.
Let us not forget that The Finborough won “Pub Theatre of the Year 2022” despite there not being an actual pub below then or indeed now.
All the cast were very good, but Vivia Font stood out in the lead role, morphing from tantrum-ready nipper to accepting oldster via all the stages of life in between.
Here is a link to the rubric about the play/production. If that link ever goes awry, try this link instead.
Reasonably well received, this piece. Click here for reviews.
There was a Q&A with the playwright and cast afterwards, but we didn’t stay for it, hungry for a Persian meal that we would not be able to procure after the Q&A.
On exit, we ran into one of my real tennis friends, Tony Joyce, and his good lady. I thought this was quite a coincidence, especially as they are not regular Finborough-istas – indeed they were trying the place for the first time. Tony agreed, not least because, as he said:
…we two couples made up nearly a quarter of the audience.
Slight exaggeration that – I think the place has room for 40 or so people each performance, but still.