Review: Silver Linings

AUDIENCE members at Ilkley Playhouse will be well advised to spend a penny before they go upstairs – because from the beginning of this play and throughout it’s raining cats and dogs and the water sloshes constantly! Set in a care home for the elderly we meet the residents at a difficult time. The flood water is rising and the rescue team is slow in arriving.

Set during Storm Vera, the very air become damp and it’s so easy to imagine the scene outside. The sound and lighting designs combined with a very flexible and open set will make the audience fearful of getting their feet wet at the very least!

This charming play by Sandi Toksvig is funny. The comedy of the piece has clearly been a focus for directors Len Taylor and Phil Marston and there are plenty of laugh out loud moments. Gloria is a strong minded woman whose strength and determination belie her years. Gloria, played masterfully by Kay Vann, is a woman with an interesting past who has clearly had enough of being patronised and belittled in the care home environment. There is nothing feeble about this woman and she doesn’t shy away from recalling her more potent past in which she has clearly been something of an adventurer. This is a wonderful performance with the comedy being wrung out of every line and of course, the comedy serves brilliantly to heighten the accompanying pathos.

Gloria lives with May and June, played by Ruth Evans and Caroline Marston, who are unlikely sisters with little common ground between them. June is hearty, optimistic and irritating with her trite ‘sayings of the day’; her sister is more measured and sensitive and is struggling to come to terms with her personal loss. And there’s Maureen who is confused by most things but is loving using her theatrical past to make light of the situation. Nobody knows who the lady in the wheelchair is – the only clue being the label in her cardi: thus so-called ‘St Michael’ is played with dignity and periodic wit by Sandy Hill and she is a great resource for practical advice when she’s not catatonic!

Bursting into the scene is the would-be rescuer, the aptly named Hope Daly, who is played with great energy and conviction by Beth Townsend. This is a tricky part to play as she promises much and yet as the play progresses it becomes that she may be able to deliver little but she does manage to motivate the residents to plan their own rescue. She is a whirl of energy in this otherwise quiet environment. References to her ethnicity are rather confusing and perhaps a little editing would have helped to clarify her character.

In the second half of the play we learn more about each of the characters in a series of soliloquys. These are moving and revealing – everyone has a past – all older people have a wealth of experiences and opinions and this is also where the story gains depth and pathos.

This play has great comedy which veils other important messages about the way in which the elderly are regarded. It runs at Ilkley Playhouse until September 22.

by Becky Carter