Alzheimer’s disease tears at the fraying edges of a family whose fearsome but loving matriarch struggles with the realisation the disease is stealing her memories in this compassionate portrait from Tanika Gupta.
Food will always be an irreplaceable mode of communication and community. And for chef and widow Queenie (Syal), the opportunity to have dinner with her three children presents her with an opportunity to use her soft power to reaffirm her position as the matriarch. Her sharp tongue and wit cannot hide the depressing reality that her forgetful moments are portentous: the confirmation of Alzheimer’s disease hits the family like a drawn-out death sentence.
A heavy sadness weighs on the scenes where Syal is in the liminal space of being aware of her illness and fighting against the dying of her light. Ghai’s direction draws the anguish out and the realisation that Queenie’s interaction with her husband, Ameet (Varla), are not flashbacks but representations of her illness, scare her family and are tenderly explored. Far from bringing about a doe-eyed sentimentality, the diagnosis brings the families tensions to the surface. Raj (Bajaj), the eldest son, brings the worst out of his mother and there is discomfort in her withering descriptions of him and his partner. They are both examples of what happens when grief finds an inadequate vessel.
As a playwright, Gupta’s great skill is using specific cultural jokes and insights as an invitation to the audience, that receive them like grateful guests. Woven through the drama are laugh-out-loud moments, bringing another layer of humanity to the proceedings, and Sawhney’s lilting compositions feel like an additional character, with music that draws on the rich cultural history of India, interspersed with sounds of the racism that many British families of colour in the 20th century had to navigate.
Whilst the play has emotional resonance and the cast give sparkling performances, in places it feels overstuffed and heavy, the focus on the progression of the disease taking precedence over the characterisation of the children. It is a deliberate choice, perhaps – a decision to focus on the love of Ameet and Queenie, both soft and resilient; a love that crosses continents, the walls of life and death, and a love that refuses to be dimmed by illness.
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