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.