DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
Latest editorial
Dementia drama lacks emotional impact
Moving: Sharon Small in Still Alice
[Geraint Lewis]
STEPHANIE BROWN draws attention to the hidden labour of the female embroiderers, and how a 19th century replica made no such error
MIK SABIERS revels in a band that ploughs an idiosyncratic furrow of expletive laden, guitar-driven alt rock
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
The bard invites readers to a gig, raps for Clacton, and lays out the Burnham-Hurzeler conundrum
RON JACOBS recommends an important book that enhances the oppositional theories put forth by Fanon and, in doing so, remakes psychology itself
Still Alice
West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
BROUGHT to mainstream attention by the 2014 film starring Julianne Moore, Lisa Genova’s debut novel Still Alice is being staged at West Yorkshire Playhouse as part of Every Third Minute, a festival that investigates what it means to live with dementia.
Christine Mary Dunford’s adaptation is low on theatrical drama or grand gestures as it follows the story of Alice (Sharon Small), a successful linguistics professor who’s diagnosed with early onset dementia. Other than the presence of her inner voice Herself (Ruth Gemmell), the play aims for realism as Alice becomes increasingly confused as she finds herself “living in a mixed-up Dr Seuss world.”
She is the cornerstone of her family, but the relationships with her husband and two children are tested as she goes to work in her dressing gown and gets lost in her own home.
Similar stories
PAUL FOLEY revels in the coolest, most joyful piece of theatre you’ll get this summer
GEORGE FOGARTY is dazzled by a breathtakingly skillful puppet version of Shakespeare’s greatest love poem
GORDON PARSONS is blown away by a superb production of Rostand’s comedy of verbal panache and swordmanship
