Careless: review
Zibiah Loakthar, our Cuimhne Coordinator writes:
Our Cuimhne team caught the play Careless at The Hen and Chickens Theatre in Highbury recently. Produced by Irish playwright Eva Tritschler (playing Bryony) and Emma François (playing Sam), the duo give a fast-paced high energy performance of acting, singing and dancing.
The play opens on the eve of Bryony's 25th birthday. As Bryony prepares to throw open their home for a party, the two flatmates exchange experiences from the day, ambitions for their future careers, thoughts on the meaning of life.
Whilst Bryony is an aspiring actress, resisting her mum’s attempts to push her towards teaching college, Sam is making a living working long hours as a care assistant for older people and people living with dementia. Sam shares some of the emotional and practical realities of care work, that is when she can get Bryony, intent on party plans, to listen! Initially, her genuine concern about looking after the people she cares for comes through and the audience warm to her quickly.
The play is marketed as "comedy". Whilst some of the humour is fun and frivolous, the play has a dark macabre side. With a warning “contains distressing themes” it may induce anxiety for those contemplating care homes. Some flippant lines may make uncomfortable viewing for those with relatives in care.
Disquieting
Without giving away the plot, this play provokes conversation about the stresses that care workers may experience, especially since the pandemic. The play is deeply disquieting, generating questions about support structures in place for careworkers and highlighting the complex skillset needed for care work which is often undervalued and taken for granted by society.
Empathy for Sam is dashed by the twists and turns of the play, confusing and disturbing the audience. This is not a sensitive play about carers or people in care homes. Rather,, it cautions us to think about the weight of responsibility our society sometimes expects care workers to take on, the demands placed on those working in care, the emotional resilience we expect carers to find.
Whilst it does little to show the diversity and humanity of people who may be living in care, this play reminds us that care workers are unique human beings with both positive traits and flaws, that carers are people, individual people, neither to be vilified nor venerated.
Careless is travelling up to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer. For further information you may be interested to read this piece in the Irish World.