There’s no doubt about it, this is a powerful play. A seemingly simple set up of three women in three generations of a family over the course of decades of love, fighting and loss is actually anything but simple. It also has a rich vein of laugh out loud humour running through it, so one minute you can be laughing, the next have tears of sadness. Alex Louise, in her first play with the central theme of Alzheimer’s, has struck this tricky balance, respecting each of those moments.
The actors have been directed beautifully, their characterisation in all the shifting scenes is like watching a masterclass in acting. Jules Craig is a powerhouse as Maggie, the matriarch of the family, portraying both the elderly grandmother and the young woman with a new born baby starting the whole story off: she does with such skilled ease it’s breath-taking. She has created such a rounded and full character yet when dementia takes hold, she reacts with such ferocity and anger, yet underneath that we can see the shame and the fear she is hiding. It’s a flawless portrayal of dementia taking hold of someone, especially someone who has been so feisty throughout their life. Superb acting, sensitive direction, and great writing is the winning combination here.
Sarah Widdas matches her as her daughter Lou: giving us another gorgeously natural and believable performance, sometimes as feisty as her mother, and sometimes more fragile. She manages to believably portray all the stages of Lou’s life from 13 year old up to mid-forties and beyond, with physicality and attitude. There are guffaw moments of absolute hilarity, watching their relationship go through the merry-go-round of mother daughter fights, joys, and everything in between. You can feel the love in the play, from the writing to the performances. Seerche Deveraux plays Amelia, Lou’s daughter: showing some extra confidence in herself that her mother lacks, almost being a friend to her mother instead of daughter: you can imagine scenarios where she would have been the care-giver in that relationship. All three of them together are riveting to watch.
This is an acutely observed and incredibly well written semi-autobiographical piece, showing the patterns and symmetry recurring within families, and both the pain and the joy that is passed from generation to generation. The way the Abba song ‘Slipping Through My Fingers’ is used in between scenes is a stroke of genius: speeded up backwards or forwards to show that the next scene will be backwards or forwards in time, which helps us all follow the non-linear plot with no problem at all. It does seem that there is more of a play here as there are a lot of little scenes and scene changes making it almost film-like, and that some of the scenes could do with being longer, as we just start to feel a deeper emotional connection to what’s going on, and then it changes.
Slipping Through My Fingers from Beware My Sting Productions is a really thought provoking, heartfelt and heart-breaking piece. Plus, how refreshing to see such complex and compelling female characters on the stage in one play: a real treat, which we need more often. The writing is concise, grounded and real, and with this as Alex Louise’s first play, there is amazing potential for the future. Absolutely recommended, one to definitely catch this Fringe.
Lantern Theatre, Brighton, 11 May 2025
Slipping Through My Fingers runs 25 and 27 May at the Lantern as part of the Brighton Fringe
