Toksvig tackles ageing and the lack of roles for mature women
ARTS CORRESPONDENT IT IS one of the most frequently discussed topics within the acting profession – the dearth of parts for oncelauded actresses as they get older.
Meanwhile, in wider society, the ageing population is also overlooked and underestimated in a country not naturally drawn to concern for the elderly.
Both issues take their place in the spotlight as comedian Sandi Toksvig announces a new play starring a group of elderly ladies and a life-and-death rescue mission.
Toksvig, the award-winning broadcaster, said she had been moved to write after becoming aware of the “lack of respect” shown to the elderly in Britain.
Saying too many people are left languishing and unstimulated in care homes, she added that she hopes to “make people think” in a comedy play tackling the issue head on.
will tell the story of five elderly women and one young carer, stuck in a Gravesend home amid rising floods and realising that “nobody’s going to come and save them, because they’re dispensable”.
As such, they vow to form their own rescue mission, revealing “incredible reserves of knowledge” that leave them “perfectly capable of saving themselves”.
Toksvig told
she had been inspired by stories from mature actresses struggling to get work and rendered “invisible” to the outside world.
“I was talking to an actress friend of mine, and we were talking about how many fabulous actresses there are of a certain age who just don’t get work,” she said. “And I thought about how few plays I’d seen where the women are absolutely front and centre and it’s about them.” One notable actress, formerly “feted and lauded” and now in her 80s, told Toksvig she can no longer get a table in a restaurant as age made her “invisible” to staff. Speaking of her dual mission, Toksvig added she also aimed to combat the idea that old age must be lonely, believing too many elderly people are being “abandoned by society”. “I love theatre and I think it still has important stuff to do in terms of addressing social issues,” she said. “I’m concerned about how we treat the elderly. I think we often don’t treat them with the respect they deserve.” One character was partly inspired by Toksvig’s grandmother, who had been in a care home and was “beside herself with the loneliness of it and the lack of mental stimulation”. “She couldn’t bear how boring it was and how much daytime television there was, and not enough mental stimulation.” While writing the play, Toksvig said, she had overwhelmingly positive feedback from women but one male director, “who shall remain nameless”, told her: “Oh my God, I wouldn’t want to be in a rehearsal room with all those older women.” The play, described as senior citizen style”, will be put on by English Touring Theatre and directed by Becca Gatward, openning at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, in February before touring. “Hopefully this will generate conversation,” said Toksvig. “That’s storytelling at its best: it makes you laugh, but hopefully it makes you think.” A photograph released by the family yesterday of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, her husband Richard Ratcliffe and their daughter Gabriella. Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe faces five years’ jail