Still Alice, Richmond & Tour, 4****: William Russell
London.
STILL ALICE
Adapted by Christine Mary Dunford from he book by Lisa Genova.
4 ****
Richmond Theatre, The Green, Surrey TW9 1QJ to 22 September 2018. Thereafter on tour: – 25-29 September, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh; 2-6 October, Theatre Royal, Norwich; 9-13 October – Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford; 16-20 October, Arts Theatre, Cambridge; 30 October-3 November, Theatre Royal, Plymouth; 6-10 November, Liverpool Playhouse; 13-17 November, Theatre Royal, Glasgow; 20-24 November, Festival Theatre, Malvern.
Richmond - 7.30pm &
Runs 95 mins No interval.
TICKETS: 0844 871 7651.
Review: William Russell 19 September.
Alice where art thou?
Alice and John are professors at Harvard. They are in their fifies and have two children, a son, who is a lawyer and is close to his mother, a daughter who is in New York working in Starbucks and studying acting with a little help from Dad and much to Mother’s disapproval. She thinks it a waste of ability. Life is good. But Alice starts to forget. The odd word, where she is, begins to feel stress. Her doctor is consulted, tests are carried out and we follow her over the next three years or so as she succumbs to Alzheimer’s.
The book was filmed in 2014 with Julianne Moore as Alice, a , but a play in its own right in which Christine Mary Dunford has come up with a clever solution to what is going on as far as Alice is concerned. Alice, beautifully played by Sharon Small, is shadowed by another actress as Herself, played by Eva Pope, who comments on what is going as Alice slowly loses her grasp of the live she has lived. Small provides a vivid and effective portrait of a career woman who has a family life she enjoys, but which has, as with her husband, taken second place. It has been directed with ingenuity by David Grindlay – the production manages to show just how this full and demanding life led by Alice starts to shut down and succumb to the surrounding darkness – and while the subject may sound difficult to take the result is a truly moving evening of theatre. At the same time you see the stress placed on her children and her husband – when the children start to worry about looking after Alice he is up for the perfect new job which would require moving and employing carers. They object, although they have no answers, he protests that it will work and must work because he will both lose a wife and a careeer.
It is a play well worth catching.
Alice: Sharon Small.
Herself: Eva Pope.
John: Martin Marquez.
Dr Tamara: Anna Andresen.
Dr Davies: Micah Balfour.
Thomas: Mark Armstrong.
Lydia: Ruth Oliman.
Director: Davind Grindley.
Designer: Jonathan Fensom.
Lighting Designer: Jason Taylor.
Sound Designer: Gregory Clarke.
Movement Director: Francesca Jaynes.
Dialect Coach: Kara Tsiaperas.
Production Photographs: Geraint Lewis.