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Spending the Pension |
Refusing to conform to old conventional ideas
SPENDING THE PENSION
Old Red Lion Theatre
AT 64, Andrew Neil is not afraid of a challenge. Spending the Pension, his new play in which he also stars, covers many issues – death, religion, sex, social change – which provoke thought but thankfully never stoops to sermonising.
It’s a story of two marriages: Peggy and Wilson (played by real life couple Andrew Neil and Anna Barry) are senior citizens who met via a dating agency seven years ago; while Deirdre and Gordon are young, first-time newlyweds who met at their work place, a funeral parlour.
Wilson is a foul-mouthed, sex-crazed, gambling Scottish man who, after a lifetime of disappointment, refuses to conform to society’s idea of “old people”. Peggy is Wilson’s opposite, a once-successful actress who’s fallen on hard times though her mantra remains “carpe diem”.
Charlotte Donnelly (Deirdre) and Alexander McConnell (Gordon) are a dull, inexperienced Blackburn couple. Their relationship blooms throughout the play, but this sweet union soon falls victim to infidelity and lack of trust.
Neil challenges the notions of marriage, juxtaposing these two relationships in nine scenes – simple tasks like shopping or going to dinner produce two completely different realities.
The majority of humour stems from Wilson and his inability to change his old, farmhand ways.
His anarchic dialogue borders on the ridiculous, but mostly it is just crude, reminiscent of an old Rab C Nesbitt.
Change is the motive behind the piece: giving humanity back to the “redundant” elderly; charting the highs and lows of modern coupling.
At a time of life when health can not be taken for granted, the comic final farewell as Wilson is admitted to hospital for pile treatment holds a distinct air of uncertainty of what is to come.
Until February 23
020 7837 7816 |
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