Memory is one of the key themes of modern drama. And Bryony Lavery's lyrical and tender new play, jointly presented by Sphinx Theatre Company and Birmingham Rep, tackles it on multiple levels - literally in that it deals with a mother afflicted by Alzheimer's, and metaphorically in that it suggests that our whole life is a fusion of past and present and is shaped by the virtual reality of cinema.
Set in a fog-enveloped wedding marquee, Lavery's 90-minute play presents parallel but intertwined actions. In part, it is the story of free-spirited lesbian Sally who meets the amazing Grace at a wedding and who, after an ecstatic fling, finds herself torn between independent solitude and lifelong commitment. But it is equally about the devastating impact of Alzheimer's on Sally's mother, Evelyn, and on her father, vainly trying to cope with a wife who scarcely recognises him. To add to a rich brew, Sally's brother is a California-based movie buff and the action is suffused with memories of Evelyn's favourite film, Casablanca.
What strikes one most of all is Lavery's compassionate understanding of life's erratic mixture of farce and sadness. There's a great scene where the whole family pursues the runaway Evelyn, who has just wet herself, in order to dress her in a nappy and the blue dress that symbolises her youth. Without moralising, Lavery shows the awful absurdity of life and the way age reduces us to childlike dependency. She also suggests that the tragedy of Alzheimer's is its unpredictability. One moment Evelyn treats her husband as an intrusive stranger, the next she seems to be reliving some past dinner party forever fixed in her memory.
If I have any reservation, it is that Lavery never fully establishes the causal connection between Sally's filial caring and final commitment to Grace; it seems to hinge on the idea that love has to be given "unconditionally" - but a word is a slender thread on which to hang a total change of heart. One's doubts, however, are overcome by the limpid beauty of Annie Castledine's production and Ruari Murchison's wedding-tent design - and by the quality of the acting. Jackie Clune's impish mischief as Sally is offset by the fixed intensity of Aicha Kossoko as Grace. Kika Markham's remarkable Evelyn, oscillating between vacant serenity and fury, is balanced by Andrew Hawkins's impotent concern as her husband. Even the evocation of Casablanca adds to the play's pervasive mood-music and sense of life's comic sadness.
Until February 3. Box office: 020-7478 0100.
