Our hero (?) wanders around the scrim-draped stage calling out “Max. Max”. We sense from the poster image for Layers that Max must be a dog, his dog. Unheard whispers flutter around him of doctors and medicine. And future.
He wanders off the stage still searching for Max. When he returns, the scrim, with each passing, collects family members. Their conversation is filled with doctors and medicine and caregivers, which he seems to be unaware of. As they multiply, they fade and the garden comes more into focus. This is one way that we lose our elderly family members: wandering; looking for their past.
There is a wealth of information about Alzheimer's and dementia from a medical perspective, a social perspective and a financial perspective. It devastates families emotionally, and sometimes robs them of their future.
Yet there is so much more that we don’t know. If you ask anyone who has gone through it with a family member, you quickly realise that the disease has as many different faces as patients.
And there seem to be different phases for each. Aggressive and passive, slow and rapid, destructive and kind. Short-termed memory falls away, leaving patients recalling the past of their youth. Or their dog, Max.
Actor Yuuya Ishizone knows first-hand this disease and presents one man’s view of what it is like for one patient, one son and one family. He offers it with a most delicate respect: detailed and focused. Both poignant and painful. With a kindness that makes it feel tolerable.
Conceived, written and performed by Yuuya Ishizone, this successful 2023 show returns. He reflects on his father with kindness and respect. He puts himself in his father, and the family, a reality. Although this is only one man at one stage of his dementia, it is such an accurate and detailed depiction. Layers helps us to understand better the patient and maybe how to deal with all of the aspects of the ever-changing disease.
The product values, the lights and screen projections are spot on. Everything else is provided by the actor / creator.
It is sad when it happens early and slowly. It is almost a blessing when it happens late and quickly.
Layers could refer to a lot of different things for the audience. Layers is bittersweet, quiet and a must-see. It’s good medicine.