A Touching and Accurate Representation of Dementia
“Happy Birthday, Gregory Bellings!” encourages us to ask the big questions about success, family and love and, at the end, what we will remember and be remembered for.
Quirky origin stories are all the rage at the moment - the Grammy and Tony award winning musical Six was written by 2 students in 10 days for an Edinburgh Fringe show- and as origin stories go “Happy Birthday, Gregory Bellings!” doesn’t get much quirkier.
Using songs written by local residents, including 4 primary school children, for a song-writing competition, writer Gerard Foster (Horrible Histories, Dead Ringers) came up with a story spanning 8 decades in the life of man (Gregory Bellings, played by Phil Mead, Robin Cave and Noah Tuppenney) now in a nursing home suffering from dementia.
Portrayals of dementia are often so unrelentingly depressing (Iris, Still Alice) that they fail to capture the range of emotions that the illness can take families through. This story instead takes a lighter, gentler approach - we see Gregory’s exasperated son Stuart (Matt Turner) arrive at the care home to collect him for a birthday lunch only to get waylaid searching for his Dad’s, possibly fictitious, Eurovision Song Contest trophy.
The play takes us on an original musical tour through the decades of Gregory’s life, as presented by his failing memory. We see how the loss of his songbird mother in his early life (beautifully played by Emily Cave) influenced his life and love choices.
It’s a touching and accurate representation of dementia - of the stripping back of memories until only the most powerful stories of music and love remain.
This is the beauty of the script and the direction by Roger Simmonds and Rachel Cave- there is lightness in how the tricky parts of life are portrayed; the imperceptible but unrelenting shift from ‘cared for’ to ‘carer’ in the parent/child relationship, the corresponding shift from professional to genuine care by Gregory’s carer (lovingly played by Corinne Miley-Smith) and how our ties of love can overcome simple classifications (as illustrated by Stuart’s ex - wife’s role in Gregory’s celebration).
My father-in-law died from dementia so I know how the final years can be a last, long, bittersweet goodbye. “Happy Birthday, Gregory Bellings!” encourages us to ask the big questions about success, family and love and, at the end, what we will remember and be remembered for.
