Really Old, Like Forty Five, National Theatre

Mix of family drama and sci-fi fable fails to delight

by Aleks SierzWednesday, 03 February 2010

Bedside manners: Michela Meazza, Judy Parfitt and Paul Ritter in Oglesby's play photo: Johan Persson

Okay, now that you’re a citizen of Dystopia, and you’ve reached the regulation old age, it’s time to check into an approved care home. Please enter the Ark, and take your allotted bed. A government official will be with you in due course. Yes, that’s right, just take those pills and you will be fine. Will you be expecting visitors? Okay. Any problems, just ask Nurse. In Tamsin Oglesby’s satirical new drama, which opened last night at the National's Cottesloe space, the biblically named Ark is not a means of salvation but an instrument of euthanasia.

In a play crammed so full of issues there’s a certain soullessness at the heart of the story

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