A Month of Sundays

I hadn’t seen this play before so I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised, therefore, that it is almost a monologue with interventions from several characters. This meant that Peter Carrington-Porter as the central character, Cooper, had a tremendous number of words to learn and he was almost word perfect so must be congratulated for that.

Cooper tells of his life in a home for elderly people and although he appears to be a cantankerous old man, he reveals a softer and caring side to his nature and this was cleverly handled by Peter. The person to get through his defences is Nurse Wilson superbly played by Zoe Matthews. She is obviously very fond of him and he of her even though he lechers after her. His best friend in the home is Aylott played by Maurice Allden who had the difficult task of showing the onset of dementure. He did this particularly well moving from occasional lapses of memory to looking bemused when he wasn’t sure where he was. The staff in the home are obviously fond of Cooper because Mrs Baker cleaned his room even though she was really supposed to clean in another part of the building. This character was well played by Carol Talbot as she dusted and acted as the look – out whilst Cooper went to the loo. She did this by singing. The two people that Cooper didn’t really bother about were his daughter, Julia, and her husband, Peter. They came to visit once a month on a Sunday. They didn’t want to be there and he didn’t want them there. There were good portrayals of the daughter and her husband by Sarah Stanley and Richard Clarke. The whole play was played in front of a very realistic set.

It is a play about getting old but more importantly about relationships as Wilson persuades Cooper to accept his daughter and not push her away.

A very amusing yet touching play about friendships and family.

Well done to the director and cast for bringing the story to life.  

 

 

 

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