Life inside a nursing “rest” home can sound appealing when everything has become too much. The restful ambiance and impeccable care that the residents inside the home receive who wouldn’t want to stay there! With a title like The Elephant in the Room it suggests that under the surface things aren’t quite that restful.

Twenty four yeat old Ashley Davenport (Richard Linnell) approaches the manager of the home Krish (Jamie Zubairi). Ashley is disillusioned with life and has inherited enough money to life comfortably without ever needing to work. 

However, he doesn’t want to live anymore just rest and visit the home’s “lilac room” which the audience is left to make up their minds about what exactly takes place there as it’s never fully disclosed. Although it sounds to me like a Dignitas section of the nursing home.

What is The Elephant in the Room? For Ashley, it’s a real Elephant that lives in the old ancestral home that he inherited although, with strict laws surrounding ownership of exotic animals, it doesn’t seem very likely. That leads to the unspoken metaphor where a subject is too divisive that everyone knows it is there but doesn’t talk about it. In this case, it’s “death” and potentially the individual choosing when.

Tanya Katyal’s performance as Yama, The King of Death. The Hindu king of death whose believed to stay and watch over the dead and ultimately decides who goes to heaven or hell. The king has plenty of decisions to make in the home. Katyal’s “puppet master” style performance controls each character when the time is right for death or guidance along their life’s path, her control over them is brilliantly delivered.

Each of the nine characters in the play comes alive and each one tells enough about their backstory to offer fully rounded characters. The four residents who are permanently resident in the home offer a believable cross-section of people you could expect to meet in a nursing home. Anywhere else the four residents wouldn’t have wanted anything to do with one another.

It’s an interesting idea and setting for a play. Although at times the storyline becomes vague and slightly far-fetched, suspension of disbelief is required. Overall it is one of those plays that becomes clearer and begins to make sense once you leave the theatre and have time to reflect and look at the themes it addresses. Especially surrounding the questions about whether someone can choose to die with dignity.

For more information about The Elephant in the Room, please visit the link below.

Three and a half Stars.

Photo credit Ocular Creative.

https://www.waterlooeast.co.uk/the-elephant-in-the-room