Telling the story of Alzheimer’s through humour
TOM and Trish have celebrated their silver wedding anniversary but what happens when he wakes up with a strange woman beside him and she tells him she’s his wife?
‘ Take Off Your Cornflakes’ comes to the Hawk’s Well Theatre on April 21st. It is a portrait of a marriage, and yet, a love story!
Trish has to make a choice. Which she does, armed only with humour, music and love.
This play is inspired by writer Rose Henderson’s Dad, Jack, who had Alzheimer’s and couldn’t remember he had Cancer.
Written alongside Pat Nolan, ‘ Take Off Your Cornflakes’ is Show in a Bag Production. Show in a Bag is an artist development initiative of Dublin Fringe Festival, Fishamble: The New Play company and Irish Theatre Institute.
Rose and Pat came together to write this show for Dublin Fringe Festival. The reaction has been so positive, that the pair decided to take it on the road.
“They look for ideas and out of 80 ideas then 12 are interviewed and four are chosen.
“We were lucky enough to be one of those. So you’re given a lot of help with it,” Rose told The Sligo Champion.
“I had this idea where, because of my Dad, I wanted to talk about Alzheimer’s.
“My Dad had it and although he forgot almost everything, he always remembered his jokes. He made up a new one days before he died. If you hang on to those kind of memories the rest is easier to deal with.”
Rose has used her own experience with her father’s condition to inspire this play, and humour is to the fore in this production.
“So it’s really about all the memories. We created two characters who are married. When they get the diagnosis you know they knew Tommy was forgetting things but it’s sort of like ‘now what happens?’
“It’s all out of sequence as well, over 15 years so you’re trying to work out is it in the early days or later stages. The audience has to work it out. It’s sad in parts but it’s so funny in other parts,” she added.
Rose added: “The show did extremely well at Dublin Fringe so we extended it to one hour 20 minutes and initially we hadn’t spoken about medication so we added that in. It’s got a lovely reaction from people.
“Some people might think ‘I deal with alzheimer’s everyday why would I want to see a play about it’ but you might get ideas on how to deal with it. If they want to go to New York at 3am you say yes and ‘ but we’ ll have a cup of tea first’ and then slowly the idea goes away, instead of just saying no.”
Rose has been acting since 1989. Upon finishing school, she moved to New York to study mime.
When she returned to Ireland, she spent some time working in children’s programmes before roles on Father Ted (Sister Assumpta) and Fair City ( Val O’Dwyer).
After leaving Fair City, she returned to theatre and finds herself on the road constantly, but she’s not complaining.
“You have to take advantage of it all when it happens. You can get terrific jobs and the money comes in and then there are terrific jobs where there’s no money but you’ ll still do it because they are young film-makers or you want to try something different,” she added.
Her co-writer is probably best known for playing Barry in Fair City for 22 years. The pair never actually worked on the Irish soap together, but have enjoyed working together on this particular project.
Tickets €16/8 u18s + €1 renovation fee Booking: www.hawkswell.com or 0719161518
All tickets will have a €1 development fee surcharge.