Visitors review, Arcola Studio

In their dilapidated farmhouse on Salisbury Plain, Edie and Arthur enjoy small, regulated lives raising chickens, fixing tractors, and measuring time by the way the seasons change the view across the fields. Their son, Stephen, long gone in search of an exciting future, is selling life insurance. Unhappily married with teenagers he seldom sees, his loss of promise consumes him. Edie's carer, Kate, meanwhile, travelled after uni and is now working for bed and board while deciding her next move.

Barney Norris's wonderful new play, Visitors, opens on one of Edie and Arthur's gentle, understated conversations in which she captures and works memories in the hope that she can cheat her slide into dementia. Bold and unflinching, Edie unearths humour in her slow degeneration, finding strength by focussing on Arthur whose sturdy, steady, form, she says, encapsulates her entire life from their first meeting near a local golf course when she was 11 and he 13. Her husband, a man of few words, displays rough kindness in every action, but events come to a head as Stephen and Kate increasingly stand between and around them. The whole notion of family is put to the test.  

Visitors is a sharp, funny, unsentimental examination of the nature of life through the prisms of three generations. While the story centres on managing Edie's decline, it is also about changes in the way we live and how they will impact on the way we die. Alone. As Edie and Arthur walk outside together, it is not they who face an uncertain future: death does not frighten them. It is Stephen, whose generation expected more than could be delivered, and Kate, whose generation has no idea what lies ahead, whose time as visitors on earth seem saddest of all.

In conclusion: Linda Bassett and Robin Soans as Edie and Arthur, give superlative performances in this intimate space. Simon Muller's Stephen is both vile and vulnerable, and Eleanor Wyld's nuanced Kate, is a pleasure to watch. Director, Alice Hamilton, has polished a very moving and strangely joyful play till it shines. It's on tour (dates below). Grab a ticket. 

References

Arcola Theatre, Tickets

UK Tour Dates  

Arcola Studio, Arcola Theatre, 24 Ashwin Street, London E8 3DL.