A Month of Sundays

A Month of Sundays

Written by: Bob Larbey
Production Dates: 2/12/2022 – 17/12/2022
Directed by: Dale James
The play by Bob Larbey, is a bittersweet comedy about growing old. It is mostly a two-hander, with a few minor supporting roles. The main character, Cooper, has voluntarily gone into a nursing home rather than become a burden on his family. We deduce his valiant determination to hold on to his remaining dignity and independence through his banter, as he jokes with the other old folks, flirts with the female staff, and keeps a close check on his own “record of physical deteriorations”. Cooper is on stage throughout, driving the emotional development of the play with his acerbic wit and waspish asides, but we also glimpse his vulnerability.  His friend Aylott is a foil to Cooper, who is the more dominant of the two. Aylott is a sensitive gentle soul, nowhere near as hearty or self-important as Cooper. The two geriatrics agree that their lives now can only be endured if they treat life as a comedy. Whether the play is showing the painful ritual of a Sunday duty visit by Cooper’s daughter and son-in-law, or the inevitable condescension shown by the young and fit to the old and infirm, Cooper and Aylott behave with humour and wit. Yet throughout there is underlying sadness. Where some writers would highlight the harrowing elements of the gradual onset of senility, Bob Larbey shows us the same experince with a sharp comedy. The two inmates of the retirement home are covering their fear of what awaits them with a brave veneer of humour.