Dementia Play at Kirkheaton Community Centre

Home from Home Friendship Group meets fortnightly at Kirkheaton Community Centre. It provides a safe, friendly, happy and homely place for people living with dementia ,their carers and for those who are lonely or isolated, to come and meet others. The group often have activities and speakers and in April they organised a play where the subject was dementia

Irene Heatherill, the secretary of the group writes:

“The Last Memory”

A Play by Bradford-born playwright Alan Stockdill and based on the real-life story of Catherine Pasek and her father Edwin Harrison

It took a while to organise but eventually we were able welcome Alan Stockdill of Talking Stock to the Community Centre to perform “The Last Memory” a play about a daughter looking after her father living with dementia.

Our room was transformed into a tiny cafe style theatre, with daffodils around to highlight our Easter themed day. Refreshments were served prior to ‘curtain up’ to our full house of exclusive audience members, those living with dementia, their carers and those suffering from any kind of loneliness.

The “poignant and powerful” presentation “The Last Memory” portrayed the thought-provoking relationship of a man with Alzheimer’s Disease and the daughter who cares for him over several years. The play was “emotionally punch-packed” about both dementia and the family relationship.

In the play, Ernest’s niggling and worsening memory problems are finally diagnosed as Alzheimer’s Disease. He asks his daughter Lynne: “How can I go to heaven if I don’t know who I am?” Ernest has a plan: to leave a vital imprint of who he is. Lynne is to be the keeper of his memory, the guardian of their past. The audience are invited to join the pair on their journey, to share their fears, smiles, strength and tears, and arrive with them as they seize the last memory and a ‘carpe diem’ hope. And we did.

The play showed how it’s still possible to extract joy out of the pain and laughter from the tears – a personal insight into the challenges of living with dementia.

The hour-long play, which is in one act, was followed by a question-and-answer session with the writer/director and actors, also with more tea and cake.

It was very interesting to hear the background of the play, why it was important to them and also get an insight, not only into the characters of the play, but the actors themselves. I came to light that not only did Keith have an eye for the fairer sex, but also liked a pint or two after any performances.

Alan posted on Facebook later that day:

A heart warming morning spent at Kirkheaton today. So proud of Catherine Pasek and Keith Royston. After a gap of over 2 years and having had only 3 rehearsals they nailed a fabulous performance today. Even when someone living with dementia had to leave (by walking across the stage) and other interruptions, they never missed a beat.

We met some fabulous ‘looker afterers’ today – here we are with some of them along with Cllr Khan of Kirklees.

A well organised event, one that the organising team were very proud of, albeit wary of how it might be received by the attendees, and we were all pleasantly pleased. Our audience received it well, although we gave them something to reflect on as they journeyed home with their Easter gift, a chocolate cream egg chick, kindly made and donated by Angela (a relative of one of our volunteers).

If you’d like to see the play by Talking Stock they are performing it at The Viaduct Theatre Dean Clough, Halifax on Thursday 28^th April at 7.30pm along with an after show party with live music, a Ukrainian choir (and a free drink). All proceeds to our local Ukrainian relief fund.