Theatre review: The Vampire Clinic
Oran Mor, Glasgow ***
Excitement, though, is not the main purpose of McDougall’s thoughtful new two-hander, in which Barbara Rafferty and William MacBain play two elderly people waiting for appointments in a hospital stroke and heart attack clinic. The action revolves around Sadie, and her inner dialogue about how to cope with the effects of her stroke, which has become a constant companion, almost another, unpredictable self; should she try to get her old self back, or treat the whole experience as a weird opportunity to be someone else entirely?
Findlay also describes his experiences as a heart patient; and when it emerges that both are involved in loveless marriages that effectively ended long ago, a new bond of friendship emerges, and perhaps something more.
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Hide AdThere are questions to be asked about just how interesting the predictable miseries of old age are, as a subject for drama; and there are moments in this play, directed by David Hayman Jr, when it seems as if Sadie’s genial but fragmented speculations will just wander on for ever. There’s something bold, though, about this frank and poetic attempt to explore the complex inner life of those whose bodies are beginning to fail them; and a pair of brave and sometimes beautiful performances help to ease us through, to a thought-provoking and touching conclusion.
JOYCE MCMILLAN
Final performance today