Given the advances in medicine and improvements in living conditions, more and more of us are said to be living longer, healthier and happier lives. Though with the jury out on the latter, as Meatloaf sung, two out of three ain’t bad.

But on the flip side of the groat, so too are more and more of us are being diagnosed with dementia. One every three minutes, according to Alzheimer’s Society. A sobering thought.

Hence why playwrights and theatre-makers are increasingly turning to the issue. Most memorably Pip Utton in his excellent one-man show And Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You at last year’s Edinburgh Festival.

In Other Words by Matthew Seager in a touring production for Off The Middle covers much the same ground. Though with a cast of two (Angela Hardie plays dutiful wife to Seager’s Alzheimer’s-stricken husband), the focus is as much on the carer as it is on the sufferer. With Hardie’s shift from lover to nurse to stranger as equally heartbreaking and impressive as Seager’s disappearance into the fog of forgetfulness.

What binds them together though is love – a love at first sight which is tested to the limit but endures. Even when it is reduced to the “stardust of a song” which as research shows triggers memory and reduces agitation. That song being the title of the play as sung by Frank Sinatra for whom they shared a passion and danced to in delight, despair and remembrance.

Many of the scenes follow a similar structure, ending with an anguished cry of despair from Hardie who is put through the wringer by director Paul Brotherston. And the shift from duologue to narrative reflection breaks the dramatic tension. But what’s not in question are the quality of the performances and the chemistry between the performers who shine in this tender two-hander.

Peter Callaghan
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