Patsy Clarke’s poignant Moon Glo is a script in development about nonogenerian women in their assisted living facility, in the last waiting room of life.
Drawing on their memories of love, grief, music, life, and reality, this a beautiful and strong piece of work from a playwright herself in her nineties, and will resonate with anyone who has seen relatives age and die, or deal with dementia.
It quietly deals with the last days of those around us in such facilities and the bickering and boring routine of the last hurrahs of life. It is all very raw and real, as some of the ladies retain their sharp minds while other regress into second, complaining, childhood.
In Moon Glo, which Barbara, the lead character has renamed her new home, there are moments which soar – the fotmer opera singer, the former clown – alongside the briskly mundane of what a dessert might be.
No cast are credited, which is a shame, but the actors (all playing much older than they are) are extremely effective and deliver Clarke’s script with gusto.
My own auntie, who is now 97, is still in her own home but physically diminished if mentally sharp, having been predeceased by her friends, two husbands, her son, and her brother.
Not for her to beg for admittance through life’s final door, but she has expressed disinterest in whether she wakes up the next morning. The ladies in Moon Glo have their interests and memories, and I felt a strong emotional pull into their story.
For more on the National Women’s Theatre Festival, visit their website.
*****