SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE – UNTIL 19th OCTOBER 2024
Reviewed by Jackie Thornton
4****
“Time is the most valuable resource there is and a lack of it is the only real barrier to happiness” remarks Dr Lane as she prepares her latest recruits for the age-defying Weston Programme. So what if we really could live forever? Would it be the ultimate gift to humanity and our planet?
These are the ever relevant questions that preoccupy Emma Hemingford’s latest thought provoking play, Foreverland.
Sharply directed by Frederick Wienand, we are thrown into a near future where science allows those with the financial means to receive a yearly gene therapy which extends life spans exponentially. As Wienand reflects, it’s a play about time – how we experience it, spend it, waste it, conserve it. For Hemingford, it’s a parable asking us to think about what makes existence meaningful in the first place. Peiyao Wang’s set and costume design subtly alludes to a highly recognisable future with no need for the cliches of sci-fi silver and robots.
It’s here we find a young couple, Alice and Jay, embarking upon the life changing programme. For Alice, played superbly by Emma McDonald, she enters with more than a little skittish trepidation. McDonald is magnetic throughout and surely an actor to watch out for. Chemistry with Christopher York as Jay is believable and there’s a strong comic dynamic between the two in what is a very funny script in spite of the weighty subject matter.
Valerie Antwi displays flawless comic timing playing the two Dr Lanes, senior and junior, as the play seamlessly time travels through decade after decade. It’s with the arrival of Alice and Jay’s daughter Annie that the harsh reality of living forever really sets in. Emily Butler makes a charming London theatre debut as young Annie while the grown up version is taken on by Una Byrne in an arresting performance which underlines the generational divides which defy immortality.
A compelling and electrifying piece of theatre that, like any worthwhile sci-fi, has us asking difficult questions about our current times.