Senior Moments

There is no question that Bernard MaClaverty, author of Cal, has a ear for the elegant idiomatic phrase, especially from the dialects of Ireland. Equally, Eileen Nicholas is moving and sensitive in her portrayal of a woman in the early stages of dementia, and Gavin Wright makes a handsome and compassionate male nurse. As a foil to Cassie's religious conservatism, Wright's nurse provides the few moments of dramatic tension, in a production that won't help the Òran Mór's reputation for grey-haired theatre.

While elevating the mundane to the poetic has been a major trend in the past century, The Women From The North lacks any purpose: it presents an old woman on the point of being moved into assisted housing, shares her moments of amnesia and confusion, and follows her tedious passage through hospital routine.

It is kind and sensitive, but Cassie's opinions piteously caught in a sentimental maternalism and religiosity, and daily struggles are predictable. Here she forgets her brother has died: now she is shocked that her nurse has children outside of marriage. It is all beautifully executed and maintains a cool compassion: a gentle hour on a well-worn subject that falls easily into a light entertainment on the serious matter of death.