![](https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/IMG_7329-rotated.webp)
Show: The Father
Society: Next Stage Theatre Company
Venue: The Mission Theatre. 32 Corn Street, Bath BA1 1UF
Credits: By Florian Zeller, translated by Christopher Hampton.
Type: Sardines
Author: Ann Ellison
Performance Date: 26/01/2023
The Father
Ann Ellison | 28 Jan 2023 01:28am
Opening Night Review by Rebecca Beard
It feels like far too long since I was last at The Mission Theatre, so the email inviting me to watch Next Stage’s production of The Father was very welcome. And what a play it is.
The evocative poster design, reminiscent of Dali’s The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory, set the tone for a play which didn’t shirk from exploring the theme of dementia, the terror and confusion it can bring to those who have it, and the difficult decisions for the family left in its wake. As people live longer, the spectre of mental decline haunts our collective consciousness, so this is very much a play for our time.
The excellent casting of the play really brought out the relationships, particularly those of Andre, his daughter Anne, and her new partner Pierre. Implicit throughout was the mystery of the other daughter Elise, and the director was careful to preserve this ambiguity.
I loved the attention to detail of every aspect of this production; the sympathetic palette of the set and costume, the subtle use of lighting to mark every scene, the use of the ticking sound effect to emphasise the metaphor of the watch and our perception of time, the gradual diminishing of the set as a further metaphor for decline; every aspect had a cumulative effect to build towards the denouement. As we watched, we were immersed in Andre’s sense of unreality, and this was particularly emphasised by the additional characters of Laura, Man and Woman. It was a beautiful ensemble performance and not a single member of the cast wasted a second of their time on the stage.
I am always loath to single out any particular performance, but a special mention must go to John Matthews for driving the play with his portrayal of Andre. He was charming, which made his frustration and confusion all the more sorrowful as he grasped vainly for the remaining scraps of memory. His final fragmentation as his shadows closed in and he called for Mummy was harrowing to watch; the final and inevitable regression to childhood.
As Shakespeare’s Jaques so eloquently put it:
Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Thank you for a wonderful evening which will stay with me for a long time.