The Old Woman Who Lived... @ Scottish Storytelling Centre

Jill and Jack, the old woman’s children whom she used to whip soundly, have grown up into adults scarred from abuse who are waiting to meet their mother. The appointment is at the Café of No Tomorrows, starting and ending point of a quasi-mythical quest for the origin of the children’s traumas. The only waiter, knowingly played by Pete Baynes, leads Jill and Jack with sweetness and subtlety through their fears until the realisation that the ‘old woman is you’. In an anticlimactic and banal conclusion, the audience understands that the old woman will not show up because the cause of the children’s pain and insecurities lies within them.

The play is a blend of drama and catchy music, with a different genre marking each scene and children’s mood, but it fails at conveying any strong message and leaves the audience puzzled and uncertain about the meaning of it all. The actors’ performances (especially Williamson’s) are captivating but the show does not live up to the expectations set up in the start. While being a reasonable effort from director Corinne Harris and her crew, The Old Woman Who Lived in A… is simply not clear or powerful enough to be memorable.