Apparently, when you reach a certain age, 60 years old, you start to become invisible and irrelevant. Many are still working but are undervalued and looked through. Writer Bren Gosling captures the despair and loneliness many audience members of a certain age will recognise.

Three neighbours who have never spoken to each other beyond a wary hello or a suspicious look are all reaching 60 around the same time and are really feeling their age and the invisible shield that’s beginning to close around them.

Tessa Peake-Jones plays Lynn, who escaped an abusive marriage years ago and until recently has been looking after her mum. Dealing with grief and trauma, she carries around the feelings of inadequacy along with being lonely.

Jack, played by James Holmes, is recently bereaved, and after years with the same partner is left alone, lost, and racked with grief.

Then there’s the handsome taxi driver Alec (Kevin N Golding) whose family are barely around these days. Alec clings to his youth slightly tighter than the other two, although his body tells him differently. Breaking the fourth wall, he tells the audience about the NHS box that has arrived. By the audience’s response, those of a similar age knew exactly what he was referring to. If you didn’t, then you’re still classed as younger.

As the characters and neighbours navigate through their life while orbiting around each other, it’s only a matter of time before their lives bump into each other.

Director Scott Le Crass has bought together a believable play highlighting the destruction that loneliness can do to single people as they age and try to navigate through a new world against the one they once knew. However, the characters also learn how to use social media to their own advantage. Lynn certainly benefits from it the most, financially, and building up her battered confidence. I’m not sure she recognises herself by the end.

Invisible Me ends up being a positive message to anyone whose reached the invisible stage of their lives. This is “our” play, and taking back the rest of “our” lives is down to “us.” Age at the end of the day is only a number. If you don’t let it take over your mindset, there’s still plenty left to enjoy and embrace.

For more information about Invisible Me and future productions at Southwark Playhouse please use the link below.

Four Stars.

Photo credit-Harry Ellotson.

https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/invisible-me/

Cast

Kevin N Golding-Alec

Tessa Peake-Jones-Lynn

James Holmes-Jack.

By Bren Gosling
Directed by Scott Le Crass.