Love and laughter ageless in the nursing home

From 'FlamboroughReview.com: Article: Love and laughter ageless in the nursing home';


By Catherine O'Hara
News
May 04, 2007
Rediscovering beauty and love, Half Life characters Patrick and Clara have fading memories. As the couple falls in love, both believe they are rekindling an old flame, but are they really, or did they know each other in the past?
Half Life is a humorous and touching play set in a nursing home for veterans. The talented cast for this production enables the audience not only to have a good laugh, but also wonder what is left in life if there are no memories to fall back on.
Directed by George Thomas, Half Life is not a "memory play," he explained, but a play about memory and forgetting.
The acting skills of Maggie Thomas and Ray Jenkins (Clara and Patrick) were in fine tune last Friday for the play's opening at Memorial Hall; their soft and gentle affection for one another resonated through to the audience.
As Clara suffers from Alzheimer's, she seems to recognize Patrick as an old flame from before the war. As their relationship and feelings for one another grow, Patrick advises his daughter Anna of his plans to ask for Clara's hand in marriage.
Clara's son Donald, played by Steve O'Brien, does not think his mother is mentally fit to understand this proposal and objects to the union.
Caregiver Tammy (Tamara Kamermans) shows her kindhearted side to the elderly she cares for in the production, but portrays a dry and abrupt attitude towards others, including Donald and Anna - a source of much of the play's humor.
Written by Hamilton native, award-winning playwright, John Mighton, Half Life is currently in production until May 12.
Members of Village Theatre Waterdown were also pleased to announce their new partnership with the Grandmothers of Steel, the Hamilton Branch of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.
In light of this new collaboration, the cast and crew of the VT production staged an additional benefit performance, last Thursday. The benefit performance raised $2,000 and awareness for grandmothers in Africa who are currently raising their grandchildren orphaned by AIDS. Sales of notecards and prints featuring images by artist Theresa Randles raised an additional $105 for the cause.
Half Life will continue to run on May 3-5 and May 10-12 at 8 p.m. Tickets for these performances are $20 at the door. Advance tickets, $18, are available via email at mail@villagetheatrewaterdown.com, by calling (905) 690-7889, or at the Jitterbug Java Café, 35 Main St.