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For Once I Was

Published Friday 17 April 2009 at 12:00 by Dominic Martin

Silent Collective’s gently comic tale of the unravelling of a father’s life following the onset of Alzheimer’s is a clever though frustrating look at the profound effect the disease can have upon family relationships.

Edmund Dehn’s soft round the edges, slightly shambolic Jacob struggles to keep pace with his demanding banking job and his fading mental faculties lead to the discovery of his illness. He confides in the sympathetic ear of his younger colleague Eleanor (Victoria Kruger), unable to communicate the increasingly dire situation to his self-centred, stroppy daughter Gracie.

The story develops by exploring the fractious relationship between father and daughter (Rebecca Stevenson) - Jacob feels he can only connect with her through a series of taped voice recordings, which he asks Eleanor to give Gracie once he is no longer able to speak coherently himself.

Jon Cooper’s dialogue is smartly paced throughout, but the humour of the piece does not feel comfortable until the latter stages. Indeed, it is not until Act II that the play really comes into its own. The cast take time to settle into their characters in a laboured first half and it becomes difficult to connect, let alone sympathise with Gracie’s personal sacrifice of choosing to care for her dad full-time, largely because she is such an objectionable, resentful character.

The ensemble works well together, sliding neatly in and out of scenes on a simple, but imaginatively used set of free-standing doors, chairs, table and blackboards, upon which cast members scribble down the location and date of each scene, as the timeline constantly shifts back and forth. There is also clever, momentary switching of characters during scenes, reflecting the growing confusion in Jacob’s mind.

Dehn’s performance is convincing and astutely not overplayed, while Jim Fish also stands out as the downtrodden but ultimately good-natured ex-boyfriend, his lightheartedness both a relief to the characters and the audience.

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