When the grey days descend upon you it is the children who think that your reasoning faculties have ceased to work and that they should do the thinking for you. Writer Bernard Farrell’s play “Happy Birthday Dear Alice” deals with this aspect of retirement and he sees the funny side of the childrens’ attitude.
“Happy Birthday Dear Alice” is in repertory at the Round in Scarborough from the 22th of May until the 6th of July, 2002.
The play is set in Ireland, but it could be anywhere and at anytime. Recently widowed Alice played by Caroline John has another birthday thrust upon her and with it the annual visit of the children and their spouses. The catalyst to the plot is Jimmy, played by Barry McCarthy, a long known friend who worked with her late husband. Jimmy has trouble with his hearing aid and doesn’t always hear correctly what is said to to him, and hearby hangs the plot. Funny situations ensue because of the hearing difficulties and Jimmy’s habit of dropping in to visit Alice, who uses him to his advantage. The thrusting, overpowering daughter Barbara, played by Tesesa McElroy, arrives with her domineered American photographer husband Cormac (Paul Boyle), and proceeds to try to get Alice into a retirement home, but Alice has other ideas. The easily distracted other son Barry (John Paul Connolly) brings naive, taken advantage of Sandy (Roisin Rae), his newly found girl friend who he has trouble keeping his hands off. She is the only one at the party who has empathy with Alice. Sam Walters directs, using very well engineered flashbacks, and the cast respond to give a grand evening of entertainment. The person in charge here is Alice who commands and controls the events despite all the efforts of the others.
A packed audience showed their appreciation as the cast took their bows at the end. Many in the theatre went home turning over the events they had seen and recognised them in their own lives, others had them to come. A nice piece of work. © BA
