REVIEW BY TOM WORSNOP WITH GUEST WRITER SUZIE WILLIS
EDITED BY KATYA EWING
Dawn Bamforth’s play The Vessel is an honest and deeply affecting look at the life and struggles of a person living with dementia, and the strained healthcare system that surrounds them. It tells the story of Mary (Suzanne Sandow), a woman who is living with dementia in the palliative care wing of a retirement home. Through Mary’s interactions with people in the present day – such as hospice staff (Ian Rooney and Melanie Thomas), her daughter Kat (Christina Curtain-Magee), and volunteers (Isabella Harrod Speight) – and her own internal monologues that tread through her memories – a full picture of a life faded away through dementia is revealed.
The staging and direction of the play (by Paul Canlan) confined us to Mary’s hospice room, building a sense of being physically trapped and mirroring Mary’s feelings of imprisonment within her deteriorating body and mind. The sparseness of the set choices reinforced how isolating and sterile a hospital room can often be. The lighting design helped to frame and shift certain parts of the stage, with the use of spotlights being particularly effective. For certain character moments, the spotlights allowed for us to step away from the coldness of the room, and sit with the focus character. This worked best with the main character of Mary, offering a clear transition from her withering physical body to her vibrant internal dialogue. Another highlight of Canlan’s staging was through the positioning of Mary’s wheelchair, which faced the audience for the entirety of the show, until her final decline in health is subtly reinforced by her being turned away from us.
The use of costume was well done, in particular the way Mary was presented. By having her huddled in a grey rug, it gave her a sense of frail vulnerability, which contrasted beautifully with the times when Mary would rise from her wheelchair and enter into her inner dialogue, opening up the rug to reveal the rug’s hot pink lining that reflected a sense of vibrancy and joy to her character. Another clever moment was the way in which Ian Rooney transitioned from Simon the nurse to Joe, Mary’s deceased husband, through costume. In one particular moment Mary began speaking while Simon rushed to the wardrobe and transformed into Joe. This onstage change of costume allowed for a smooth transition into the next scene and reinforced the idea of the world shifting completely to what Mary see internally.
The acting throughout was strong, with clear characters that made the issues of the play feel pertinent and sharply realised. Christina Curtain-Magee’s Kat perfectly nailed the anxious, at times desperate daughter, attempting to manage and organise the world around her mother Mary. Melanie Thomas’s role as Sally, Mary’s personal care assistant, channelled a similar sense of being overtaxed, weaving in the themes of a struggling medical care system, being pushed to its very limits. Ian Rooney was admirable in his dual role as both Simon the nurse, and Mary’s late husband Joe, and his transformation from the former to the latter was done effectively. However, his returning from Joe to Simon did at some points feel a little muddled and unclear, with moments of Simon being forgetful that felt a little misplaced for the character. Isabella Harrod Speight did well with her character of Grace, a teenager who is volunteering at the nursing home, though her character’s arc and story felt the least developed of the major themes of the piece. Indeed, within the hour long show – dealing with the harsh reality of a dementia patient in palliative care – Grace’s journey of looking for a resolution following her own grandmothers death felt a bit rushed and incomplete.
However, it must be said that the heart and soul of the piece was the performance by Suzanne Sandow as Mary. In her interior dialogue, Sandow injected Mary with such wonderful vibrancy and joy, which only further emphasised the contrast to the hauntingly accurate depiction of the aged, declining Mary. Sandow’s breadth of talent shone in conveying the intense frustration of her condition, as Mary was mostly non-verbal while she was in the ‘present’ of the hospice room. And yet at times, Sandow drew out a twinkle of the eye, as she found little pleasures in the world, such as Grace’s singing a song to her. One particularly strong detail was the way in which Mary interacted with the audience, sometimes handing them sugar packets, and other small titbits she had stashed away in her pockets, or staring intently at the audience, despite someone in the room attempting to communicate to her. So many of these little touches felt so utterly genuine to the movements and behaviours of someone with that condition, in a way that gives the show its emotional depth and power as it discusses the tragedy of dementia.
The Vessel is, on the whole, a moving piece of theatre that so delicately and powerfully humanises the experience of people who see their very lives slip away from them as they age. It highlights the tension of exhaustion underlying the care given to them, by both medical professionals, and their loved ones.
The Vessel played October 14th – 18th at Theatre Works as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.
TOM WORSNOP is a performer and writer, and has been involved in Unimelb theatre since 2019.
SUZIE WILLIS is Tom’s relative, who has experienced the journey of dementia in her mother. Tom would like to thank her for accompanying him to this show and co-writing this review.
KATYA EWING is a third year English and Theatre Studies/Media student. She loves immersing herself in the theatrical world, whether it be acting, watching or reviewing!
The Dialog is supported by Union House Theatre.
The Dialog 