A young man, hurrying to visit his wife and new-born daughter in hospital escapes a strange encounter in the street, but is then transported into the future, finding himself in an old people’s home, still young but inside an old body. How quickly life passes and how long drawn out its ending is what it seems we are being shown. Vanishing Point’s production, conceived and directed by Matthew Lenton is a haunting visual and atmospheric account of senile dementia and the closing stages of life. Dialogue is perfunctory – everyday chit-chat, calming words from nurses to patients, necessarily repetitive and banal. There are elements of cruel beauty in a production that has bewitching qualities, but maybe its messages are not ones that not many of us are keen to take in.
Performance date: 15 August 2015
The Beast's Pen 