The Journey to Venice is a subtly written, perceptive, gentle play about old age and dementia. It is witty, poignant, moving and powerful: one wonders why it has taken more than thirty years to receive its UK premiere!
Written by the Norwegian novelist and journalist Bjørg Vik, who died in 2018, it won the Ibsen Prize for Drama in 1992 and has been staged continually all over Norway. Lasting only 75 minutes, it is perhaps difficult to programme but encapsulates more in those minutes than many much longer plays manage to – in fact, it is exactly the right length, and sends the audience out of the theatre discussing the topics it deals with, which affect everyone in the end. Apart from the quality of the writing, the translation by Janet Garton seems very natural.
Edith (Annabel Leventon) and Oscar (Tim Hardy) are just about surviving on his pension. He is a victim of the early stages of dementia, only really being able to remember events from the distant past, especially poetry, and at times being quite lucid. Edith has sold most of what can be sold to pay the bills, hoping that he will not notice that paintings that have gone ‘to be cleaned’ in fact never return. They spend their time remembering journeys they have made… but are interrupted by a plumber, Christopher (Nathan Welsh) and Vivian ( Charlotte Beaumont), a ‘home help’, whom they have never previously met.
Hardy ‘is’ Oscar, simply because he has the most gorgeous, warm, speaking voice it is possible to imagine and totally inhabits his role. He is infinitely watchable, looking every inch Norwegian with his mane of almost white hair and beard. His journey through the play is finely paced, at times being ‘in control’, apparently, at others being content to ‘go with the flow’. He is able to project both voice and character effortlessly, and one feels one is eavesdropping on a very private man: one who knows what is slowly happening to him.
Leventon as his wife Edith, is obviously at her wit’s end, what with all the bills that are owed as well as having to keep Oscar amused all day, resorting to reading him the most erotic passages from ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’ amongst other books to try to slow the loss of memory. Again this portrayal is very believable, and quite involving. Each member of the audience quickly realises that he/she could be in this situation. Leventon and Hardy work beautifully together, relishing the light and shade in the writing. It is easy to believe that they have been married for many years. Her final moment is extremely moving and says more than a thousand words could do.
Welsh is suitably upbeat as the stereotyped plumber who quickly becomes a ‘real person’ upon contact with the couple. As with Hardy, he also possesses a calm speaking voice which is a pleasure to listen to, and is so appropriate to what he is given to say.
Beaumont as the rather useless, clumsy, home help, bursts in with a great deal of excess energy, but her sufferings are soon apparent and she ends up a better, calmer person, much more at peace with herself, owing to her contact with Edith and Oscar, and one can easily imagine this relationship becoming closer as time marches on, in spite of, or perhaps because of, the cats.
Thinking about the play itself, it is interesting how positive and funny a piece of theatre it is: not at all depressing, but uplifting. Something that demands to be seen. This is due in no small part to the inventive yet subtle direction of Wiebke Green who has understood the play and how it needs to be staged, as well as the simple, poverty-stricken, design of Kit Hinchcliffe, showing the shadows on the wall of paintings long removed and traces of cats and mice on the floor! Subtle yet inventive lighting design (Martha Godfrey) aids the atmosphere being created as do the uncredited video projections and sound (Julian Starr).
This is one of the best written and acted plays that I have seen for a long time – how typical of the Finborough Theatre to have the imagination and confidence to stage it. It also makes one realise that there must be many excellent Norwegian plays apart from Ibsen which no one seems to have the courage to mount in the UK! Do try to see it before it ends its run on 25 March. A truly wonderful evening in the theatre.
Review by John Groves
Edith and Oscar Tellmann have been together since before they can remember.
When their family life took a devastating turn, the couple found solace in travel and adventure. But now they’re well into their 80s, stuck in a drab, damp flat, surrounded by cats, books, memories, and leaking pipes.
As they journey into old age, the couple invent new ways to travel together…
The Journey to Venice is a celebration of ageing, fantasy, love, and the sacrifices we make to keep on living.
THE JOURNEY TO VENICE
by Bjørg Vik
Translated by Janet Garton
Tuesday, 28 February 2023 – Saturday, 25 March 2023
https://finboroughtheatre.co.uk/
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- Review: Losing Venice at The Orange Tree Theatre
- Makeshifts and Realities by Gertrude Robbins at Finborough Theatre
