Roger Hall, elder statesman of New Zealand playwriting, still has plenty to say. As Hall’s generation of baby boomers heads towards retirement and beyond, in Who Wants To Be 100 (Anyone who is 99), the playwright turns his focus on the ageing and their care.

Given some reasonably high profile and recent instances of rest home and elder abuse, this is a topical preoccupation – especially for the bubble of ‘boomers who are either settling aged parents into rest homes, or who are now themselves stepping warily into the "twilight years" zone.

To explore this, Hall adopts somewhat of a soapbox approach. The characters constantly break the fourth wall to directly address the audience in a series of mini monologues. There are four elderly male inmates in this wing of the Regina Rest Home, plus assorted members of staff played by Kate Louise Elliot, and visiting family played by Dra McKay.

This device is a shorthand way of quickly filling in backstories and establishing scenes, as well as adding some panache by way of music hall or revue-style showmanship. It also enables David McKenzie’s non-articulate stroke-crippled Charles – emeritus professor of history – to voice his thoughts and neatly underpin the frustration and tragedy of his condition.

Stephen Gledhill’s dapper and personable Edwin, former "golden tongued" QC, still enjoys control over most of his facilities and functions, and acts as prime spokesman. But, just how together his he? Beneath Edwin’s cheery façade, the actor has planted subtle seeds of doubt.

A former All Black and Manawatu rugby rep, Eddie Campbell’s garrulous Leo may always be ready with a funny story, but these days the veteran player needs a walking frame, has developed incontinence issues, and there are questions about his relationship with family.

Randy potter Alan Webster, suffers dementia, and is sometimes lucid – sometimes not; but despite it being labeled as such, whatever Peter Hawes’ character has got, it is not Alzheimer’s.

Elliot’s roles – glib rest home manager, fickle entertainment officer, not too bright but good-hearted caregiver, and aggressive bullying night supervisor – try hard not to be stereotypes, but are a little too purposefully contrived not to be.

McKay, playing the wives of Charles and Alan, and a beautifully rendered grown Aussie daughter to Leo, has much more substance to work with, and accordingly obliges with three distinctive and evocative vignettes.

Hall’s play treads a tricky course between having pointed fun at the expense of rest home staff and residents, and using humour to make valid observations about attitudes to the elderly, their periodically revealed shocking treatment, and how close family members cope with the situation.

Shelley Irwin’s realistic set with individual furnished rooms spanning the length of theatre, makes for some flow-impeding delays in getting on and off stage or moving from front-of-stage day-room to rear-of-stage bedrooms – especially for McKenzie and Campbell who are encumbered with mobility paraphernalia.

Something of a stylistic and genre compromise with the men physically quite a bit younger than their characters suggest, this slightly fussy and occasionally too close for comfort production, manages to be thought-provoking as well as entertaining. Excellent houses and positive audience responses have followed.

[A version of this review was first published in Palmerston North weekly community newspaper, The Guardian]
_______________________________
For more production details, click on the title above. Go to Home page to see other Reviews, recent Comments and Forum postings (under Chat Back), and News. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer