Everything Theatre Reviews, interviews and news for theatre lovers, London and beyond
Summerhall – Anatomy Lecture Theatre
A well-researched play that works as an introduction to the challenges surrounding dementia. However authentic, it doesn’t feel immersive, nor experimental as advertised.Summary
Rating
Good
To write The Fish Bowl, Matthew Barker – who also delightfully performs in the show with Heidi Steel – has drawn directly from his experience as a carer in a nursing home. Tender and intrinsically dramatic, it portrays the lives of patients affected by dementia at an unnamed organisation in South Australia and the struggles of the health professionals who work within the establishment.
I chose to see it for personal reasons as my father is currently at an advanced stage of dementia himself. It attracted my curiosity because it was billed as experimental, immersive and promised to show “how a person with dementia experiences the world”. With these premises, I imagined a groundbreaking exploration of an illness that takes our loved ones away whilst still physically leaving them with us. What I found instead is a well-written theatre piece, with invaluable educational value that could work as an introduction to the challenges surrounding dementia but, considering the sensitive topic, could have hit much harder. Far from being immersive, there is some limited interaction involved, as a fellow spectator is asked to say some lines, for example, or we are all invited to sing together.
As the scenes become stronger, representing self-harm and death, I can hear the audience taking deep breaths. Maybe I am desensitised by my own experience, but I kept anticipating a further degree of intensity that never came. I expected to see patients when they’re being changed and react as if being assaulted, as they can no longer recognise people around them – not even those they see every day. Or again, how impossible communication becomes as they rapidly lose their verbal functions. It is also problematic that the Anatomy Lecture Theatre has a glass-domed high ceiling and Steel’s hasty delivery often drowns in its own echo.
However, I must praise Barker for choosing to talk about dementia, a surging illness that is often dismissed because it only affects the elderly. I’m grateful that he’s willing to keep the discussion alive and ensure that people in aged care are not forgotten.
Written by: Matthew Barker
Directed by: Steph Daughtry
Produced by: Fish Bowl Productions
The Fish Bowl plays at EdFringe until 27 August (10.25am daily). Further information and bookings can be found here.
