Photo Pete Le MayA poignant comedy and biting social satire. Returning to the Citizens where it first premiered in the 60s, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg walks a tightrope between humour and heartbreak. Read more …
A couple are struggling to cope with caring for their disabled child. Brian is a harassed teacher who works at an unruly British comprehensive and is defiantly unsentimental about their situation. Sheila on the other hand is a resilient mother who desperately clings to the hope that one day her daughter will overcome her medical condition.
Finding it easier to confide in the audience than each other, they replay key episodes in their life story like practiced marital rituals.
Nothing is off limits for Brian’s mockery including his doting, decent wife who plays along to keep her husband happy. But as they are pushed to the limits of emotional trauma, it becomes a self-defeating means of deflecting the heart-ache within.
If laughter in the dark is what you’re after , look no further. But prepare yourself for an emotional rollercoaster.
Fascinating, witty and thought-provoking.
Breen’s production flits between music hall archness and gut-wrenching seriousness.
Whilst – in its comedy of British social manners and politics in the late Sixties – it is very much a work of its time, Nichols has a capacity with comedy and tragedy which resonates.
A Day in the Death of Joe Egg is brutal, funny and provocative.
It gets funnier as it gets bleaker, making the central dilemma seem more intractable still.
If the casting of Margolyes is a stroke of genius, though, it’s only the first of many in Phillip Breen’s flawless and sometimes brilliant production.
How the Citizens Theatre cracked Joe Egg
Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow from Wednesday October 19, 2011, until Saturday November 12, 2011. More info: www.citz.co.uk
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