Running over the course of two nights I was able to attend the performance of ‘Age’ on Friday 14^th of June at Chapter Arts Centre in Canton, Cardiff.  The production was part of the program Re-Live who specialise in delivering life story documentary work, and in particular with this fascinating collection of people sharing powerful snippets from different milestones of their life journeys.

‘Age’ is a group of 10, very diverse people from an older generation, working together to recall some of the most important tales of their lives for the audience to experience. With ‘Age’ I felt nothing was off limits, the cast themselves were so open and eager to tell us about such intimate moments in their lives, some heart-warming and some heart breaking.

I felt completely overwhelmed by each person’s freedom to express themselves so openly, for myself it was the question posed ‘Do I still have sex at 70? No, but I do make love’ that instantly caused me to smile in a delightful shock.

What made this so effective was that each member of the group had such a different and exciting story to tell, and they did it with such courage and compassion you couldn’t help but get caught up in the rollercoaster of emotions the performer was experiencing. I laughed with them, I cried with them and in the end I respected them.

The entire ensemble including a beautiful backdrop of a glowing sun, a three piece band and the entire cast constantly on stage really made the performance unique, I felt each member of this group was supported by their peer during their time to story tell, a sharing experience.

Unfortunate that the production was only run over two nights as I feel a longer run would have attracted more attention and built more awareness, I very much look forward to seeing what Re-Live have in the pipeline for the future.

A very warm thank you to the person that offered me a tissue for my tears of laughter!

http://www.re-live.org.uk/