Review: If You Fall, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘An urgent, devastating and taboo-busting exploration of older people’s care’

Once in a while, you see a piece of theatre imbued with such emotional weight and force of connection that it seems to reach out and shake every one of its audience to their core.

If You Fall is one of those. Its devastating exploration of the older people’s care system in the UK is told through an electrifying multi-generational ensemble of six actors, moving between patient and carer; relative and visitor; the person they once were, to the one they would become.

Under Helena Middleton’s stylish direction, the multi-award-winning Ad Infinitum again prove themselves to be unafraid to shift the paradigm. And in terms of our own elder and end-of-life care, the yawning chasm between our expectations of how we should be understood, and the reality, is starkly underscored here.

Clive Duncan in If You Fall, Ad Infinitum – photo: Camilla Adams

It’s apparent in the subtle shifts in perspective – the skewed blinds, the ensemble talking or singing in unison, often while lying in prone positions on the floor – to the frequent leaps in space and time, as the clarity of memory punctuates the haziness of reality, and a mother, now dead, reminisces about her three – now middle-aged – children, as babies.

Though it is decidedly non-linear, the narrative centres on the two characters, and lives, of Norson, and Margaret – who looks back at the sparing eulogy given after her death and laments “what about all the rest?”

And yet for both these people, now stripped of their independence and to a large extent, their vitality, we see an abundance of the humanity, music, joy and passion they have packed into their lives.

Jabari Ngozi and Kirris Riviere – photo: Camilla Adams

Now reliant upon care, they are often reduced to the sum of their needs – the problematic subject of an argument between children over how to cope with an ailing parent.

Kirris Riviere gives a shattering performance as the vibrant, food and cricket-loving Norson, disappearing behind the “blank-eyed stare” of early-onset dementia.

And Heather Williams’ Margaret, a character of irresistible twinkle and charm, is reduced to tears as she confronts the reality of losing her independence, and the isolated wails of “Help” as she waits, unheard, after falling.

Robin Paley Yorke and Heather Williams – photo: Camilla Adams

It’s a gut punch of an experience to watch, and takes you through the full gamut of emotion, from sorrow and compassion, to anger and consternation – although just like the darkest parts of life, somehow we’re never far from finding a way to laugh, too.

Everyone, in their own way, appears to be navigating a world in which they can find themselves stuck, and then shaken into glimpses of clarity, only to fall once more.

Margaret sings a song from a vivid childhood memory for 24 hours; Norson returns again and again to the sanctuary of the 1970s West Indies cricket team. And yet, shrouded by the confusion, the clinical exchanges and the collective din of the external world, there is a crushing sense that these people are not truly being heard, and their identities are slowly being lost.

Clive Duncan, Robin Paley Yorke and Elisabeth Gunawan – photo: Camilla Adams

Through and following the pandemic, Ad Infinitum conducted extensive interviews with care providers and users, leading to the production of a two-season podcast Home from Home: Journeys into Care for Older Adults. If You Fall is a continuation of that project, and the thoroughly human stories pervading the play reflect that authenticity.

As a devising cast, the actors, too have poured many of their own life experiences into their roles – as children, grandchildren or friends of those who have found themselves needing care. It lends a sharper relief to their (and our own) appreciation of what the care system is, and how we can better support it.

By voicing the impact of the distance that may be felt between us and the care of our elders, what Ad Infinitum have achieved with If You Fall is an eloquent and impassioned call to break down those barriers of communication. It deserves to be seen far and wide.

If You Fall is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic from April 5-15 at 8pm, with additional 3pm matinee shows on Saturday (no shows on Sunday or Monday). Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk.

Main photo: Camilla Adams

Read more: Ad Infinitum’s diverse and inter-generational cast in rehearsal for ‘If You Fall’

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