“The restaurant industry in the UK is in real trouble,” wrote David Greig at the start of the pandemic. “But food is not in trouble. People will find ways of eating food together.”

The same goes for the theatre industry: its buildings, companies and artists are in real trouble; but our desire to share and listen to stories – a need which Greig described as “primal as food” – is as strong as ever. Perhaps stronger.

Some companies have adapted stage plays for the screen such as National Theatre of Scotland’s excellent production of Adam. Others, like Royal Lyceum Theatre and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s joint audio-digital venture Sound Stage, have turned to radio.

Their first of eight premieres being Mark Ravenhill’s autobiographical drama Angela which explores his late mother’s dementia and “the way culture high and low had impacted on [his] Mum’s life and [their] lives as a family.”

Switching back and forth in time from Angela’s (Pam Ferris’s) final days in hospital to a series of life-shaping events including the loss of a child, the blossoming of her relationship with her husband-to-be (Toby Jones) and the raising of her ballet-loving son (Jackson Laing and Joseph Millson as young and old Mark respectively), the content and texture of Ravenhill’s authentic dialogue – complemented by Alexandra Faye Braithwaite’s meditative score – will strike a chord with many who have experience of dementia.

The forgetting of names, the muddling of memories, the growing frustration and the gradual loss of independence which give rise to hurtful comments and sudden lashings out are both painful and heartbreaking.

Yet as Mark says to comfort his mother after an intense period of distress: “If we forget how upset we’ve all become and just sit together and have tea and walnut cake, then I think we’ll all be alright.”

A metaphor, perhaps, for how theatre and the “primal” need for sharing stories can bring us together and heal our wounds once the pandemic loosens its grip on our… “There was a word for that?” asked Angela. Ah, yes: lives!

Peter Callaghan
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