Perry is the only child of two lov­ing and hard-work­ing par­ents. She’s inquis­it­ive, enthu­si­ast­ic and over­whelmed with after-school activ­it­ies. When an oppor­tun­ity comes up for her to spend more time in the home with her Gran (instead of ten­nis) she jumps at it. Over the year as Perry gets to know her Gran and the oth­er res­id­ents she starts to cre­ate a book just for them.

The script adap­ted by Jane Wad­dell is based on a book by Kate de Goldi. Wad­dell has man­aged to pick out the essen­tial parts of the story although some­times it can feel a bit epis­od­ic. (This is prob­ably more a reflec­tion of the year the book cov­ers rather than the adap­tion pro­cess.)

Lauren Gib­son is excel­lent as Perry. She’s got the right level of cheeky along with a lovely open man­ner on stage. Her par­ents (played by Amy Tar­leton and Nick Dun­bar who also double as oth­er char­ac­ters) are on point con­vey­ing a slightly dis­trac­ted air bal­anced with small phys­ic­al inter­ac­tions that indic­ate par­ent­al love. Along with Tar­leton and Dun­bar, Michele Amas and Simon Leary double as oth­er char­ac­ters ran­ging from a small child to people in the rest home.  Some­times this is quite a fast pro­cess so well done for mak­ing each char­ac­ter feel dif­fer­ent. Ginette Mac­Don­ald plays Gran (Hon­ora Lee) with a dis­trac­ted and mis­chiev­ous air.

A lovely play explor­ing the con­nec­tions that can devel­op between chil­dren and older people.

 

  • The ACB with Hon­ora Lee, by Kate De Goldi, adap­ted and dir­ec­ted by Jane Wad­dell, on at Circa Theatre to 26 March 2016.