Review: Age Is A Feeling, Soho Theatre Walthamstow

Age is a Feeling is a one-woman play written and performed by Olivier Award nominee Hayley McGee, and has already won awards at Edinburgh Fringe and Toronto, as well as two sold-out, critically acclaimed runs at Soho Theatre, London. So a limited return to Soho Theatre Walthamstow felt like a homecoming for the now Waltham Forest resident writer and performer. And I gladly sat in the beautifully restored space (myself a former E17 local) braced for a life-seizing 70-minute opportunity. 

It is worth taking your seat here for a couple of minutes pre-show to get into the zone, with a successfully emotive score composed by sound designer Robert Moutrey. Take in the outsized paper blooms rooted in a muddied grass mound from set designer Zoë Hurwitz that is dramatically lit by Daniel Carter-Brennan, and gaze at the empty laddered seat before the story begins. There is a sense of alchemy and magic, and I wondered if this intimate deliberation on mortality could work in such a vast, former cinematic space? Yes, yes it can, and the aesthetic collaboration elevates the Canadian performer’s funny self-deprecating vocal world that is played fluidly from her sturdy lifeguard’s seat. Her relaxed and personable style of playing is clearly articulated by director Mitchell Cushman and balancedwith an authentic depth of loss.

McGee’s interactions begin with choosing six stories from a possible twelve labels plucked from the blooms. She invites audience members to shape what bits of the play we get to hear, just as mortality shapes the way we live. This is clever, low-key engagement as McGee glides firmly up and down the auditorium, thanking individuals, and, as a result, we are all invested. 

The six-story titles could include words like ‘Eggs’, ‘Book’ or ‘Crabapple.’ The mood of each show must be different, and our audience experienced a mix of sad and uplifting life-affirming tales. Placed within a structure of ritual and repetition, which starts with 25th birthday celebrations, then charts a possible timeline.  Those nearer their seminal 25th birthday can project their futures, and others can reflect on older joy, so beautifully written and inspiring to hear of lives well lived.

Hayley says she consulted with mystics and hospices, and made visits to cemeteries. The content and form reflect this, and first-time visitors to hospices can be surprised by the gyms, programmes advocating living well, and, foremost, the humour. ‘Grey pubes’ and other laugh-out-loud one-liners are pitch perfect as ageing or end-of-life milestones are relayed with wit, compassion, tenderness and love. Love is key.

It is easy to appreciate how this play translates for international audiences. Put simply: they die, we die. Translations of Age is a Feeling have been produced in China, Chile, Malta, Turkey, Brazil, and Germany. Upcoming international productions are planned for India, Taiwan, Sweden and Poland. It is a credit to McGee’s writing and research that communities can own and relate to her work. Hayley McGee, barefoot and in muddied jeans, enacting the inevitable return to nature, is powerful, universal, and specifically personal, which is why Age is A Feeling is for every adult, messy with uncertainties and doing it anyway. Heartfelt and wise, it was 70 minutes well-spent and to be remembered.   

Writer / Performer: Hayley McGee
Director: Mitchell Cushman
Set Designer: Zoë Hurwitz
Lighting Designer: Daniel Carter-Brennan
Sound Designer: Robert Moutrey
Original Director and Dramaturgist: Adam Brace
Producer: David Luff

Age Is A Feeling plays at Soho Theatre, Walthamstow until Saturday March 7