This charming play from Ronald Harwood; Oscar and Academy award-winning playwright (The Dresser) and screen writer (The Pianist), revolves around the residents of a retirement home for opera singers.

They are all old, but each of them treats their ageing in a different manner and it’s this combination of strength and fragility which the story is woven around.

The plot, like the set, is simple, elegant and oddly convincing.  There’s a new 'inmate' and the home is abuzz with whispers about who it might be, it’s someone grand, from the old operatic tradition and indeed when Susannah York’s waspish, hard ‘Jean Horton’ arrives, she is indeed grand, haughty and with more than hint of Edith Piaf about her. Jeans arrival at the home upsets the cosy, timeless routine and their plans for a yearly concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday.

This is the point the play comes alive and this is really a Verdi quartet but for actors rather than singers, the characters ‘voices’ combine beautifully - one strand laments the various lives that these people have lived, another contrasts about the lives they are living, the soaring voice of hope and triumph that rages against the dying of the light and the profound deep bass of the ruthlessness of ageing itself. It’s lightly done and there is a constant stream of laughter to mollify the bittersweet sadness.  

Timothy West as ‘Wilfred’ and Gwen Taylor as ‘Cecily’ share the best of the comic lines between them and this must have one of the funniest opening lines of any play I’ve seen in years.  With Michael Jayson bringing a quiet, profound dignity to the role of ‘Reginald’ with some delightful rude rants about his marmalade aside, this four handed play runs well, swiftly and into some surprisingly deep water before ending up on a lovely piece of light hearted theatrical trickery which was  moving and ended the show on a warm glowing high.
 
Harwood is no Bennet, but he does love theatre and this touching portrayal of the vigour and lust for life in folk who have been cast aside from a glamorous world that only seem to cherish the young is more fun than it seems at first glance.

It’s a feel good play, with some brilliant flashes of wit and tender insights into the choices folk make, the secrets that haunt and shape them, and the ways we cope with the growing familiarity of deterioration, dependence and loss in our lives.

I think perhaps Director Joe Harmston could have been a little firmer with the cast as there were quite a few fluffed lines which gave it an Am’Dram feel, but other than that the show is a vintage joy.

These four actors are wonderful together, real warmth and humour flows between them and the overriding theme of triumph over the slings and arrows of ageing is best summed up by Celia  'We're artists, aren't we, we're supposed to celebrate life….’

The play starts in silence and ends in glory and I left feeling delighted by the evenings events.

Theatre Royal Brighton till July 10
Book here:  www.ambassadortickets.com/brighton
Box Office - 08448 717 650