Kin

Thanks to the smoothing processes of friction and attrition, the sand in an hourglass falls through marginally quicker each time it is used. Over the years these accrued nanoseconds add up. The older the hourglass, the quicker the hour slips by. Experience changes perception.

Hourglasses, and all their attendant associations, are front and centre in this gentle meditation on ageing. Writer and performer Donna Rutherford is the only live presence on stage, sharing it with the hourglasses, three tables, Tunnocks teacakes, lots of cups of tea and three large televisions. All communicate the subtle yet seismic shifts of growing old.

On a screen flicker interviews with well-known actors talking about their relationships with, and fears for, their parents. Between the video segments Rutherford poetically meanders, sings snippets of The Beatles’ 'Here Comes The Sun,' and muses about being childless and middle-aged. 

This is no raging against the dying of any light. Rutherford’s voice never gets above a nurse's bedside tone. All the interviewees are honest, articulate and generous as they describe the friction and attrition that has brought the realisation that if your parents are slowing down, you too are ageing. It comes for us all.

If you are at a certain time in your life, during that unspoken shift in familial dynamics when parents silently change from being the carers to being cared for, this show could blow your heart (and tear ducts) wide open. For those who have yet to experience that metamorphosis, Rutherford’s piece may only have a superficial tug. Ultimately, it depends what kind of hourglass you are.