A mood of sadness, loss and regret dominates Sebastian Elder’s memory play. Two older men meet after a long time apart. Francis (Ted Ackery) encourages the gloomier Ellis (Ben Pearson) to speak about what is on his mind.
Ellis begins to recall his time with Laura many years before.
The scene shifts backwards to a younger Ellis (Finn Vogels) holding an urn that carries his mother's ashes. Standing beside him, Laura (Eliana Kiakides) tells him to “take all the time he needs.” The urn is emptied to piano music and the scene changes.
Ellis and Laura are talking about having a child when Ellis gets a phone call from the younger Francis (Amiran Antadze) whose home has been flooded. Ellis tells his friend he can stay at their home for a period.
Subsequent scenes reveal a bit more about each of our characters. Francis works in a hospice, which is receiving increasing numbers of younger people. Laura has been a teacher and is still looking for teaching work. Ellis doesn’t seem to have any prospects of work. Unfortunately, the cost of living is high, with Ellis spending nearly £300 on a single shop.
Although the play’s characters seem emotionally engaged with each other, not much happens very gently. If you read advertisements for the show, you might have expected something to do with climate change, but the only possible allusion to that issue might be the rain causing floods and the reference to refugees. Both seem less important to the story than the passing mention of a particular supermarket. At times, I wondered if this was a play about the impact of artificial intelligence on teaching or a glimpse of the COVID years.
The acting is confident and fluent in delivering the text produced by a writer with sensitivity to his characters and even a touch of the poet. The mood of grief and loss dominating the show may fit this rather gloomy period in which we live, but the play lacks dramatic tension or serious plot development and is politically very vague.