Photo by Roddy McIntoshKIN is a two part project gathering the experience of middle-aged children and their ageing parents, looking at how we negotiate this changing relationship in later life. As time speeds up, the future and its inevitable deteriorations get closer. Just as you become slower at everything you do, take longer to do the simplest things, you find yourself hurtling downhill with no brakes. KIN explores the fear, sorrow, anger, guilt and frustration but also the love, trust and laughter to be found as middle-aged children negotiate the changes in their relationship with an ageing parent. Read more …
Performers reveal to camera concerns of their own ageing while dealing with their parents’ increasingly glacial pace of life. Testimonies from members of Forced Entertainment, Reckless Sleepers, Quarantine and from Alison Peebles are linked during a live performance by Rutherford.
As a piece of work, it is worth taking the time to note that KIN is quite beautifully and meticulously realised, technically and in its timing to the last grain of sand in an hour glass. And, as we learn, those timepieces are, like memory, more fickle than we believe.
If Kin is sometimes deeply affecting, it is also, in moments, flagrantly obvious.
The show is as gentle and caring an exploration of a difficult subject as can be imagined.
The show unearths an emotional and necessary discussion, it just requires greater development of the final product.
Kin is presented with so much care and delicacy that you can only be drawn in, finding yourself reflected in the various stories, and allowing yourself that rare time to step back and ponder.
Interview: Donna Rutherford
Writer Donna Rutherford on KIN, an exploration of parent-child relations
Byre Theatre, St Andrews from Friday January 27, 2012. 7.30pm. More info: www.byretheatre.com
Eastgate Theatre and Arts Centre, Peebles from Thursday February 2, 2012. 7.30pm. More info: http://www.eastgatearts.com/
An Lanntair, Stornoway from Friday February 10, 2012. 8.00pm. More info: www.lanntair.com
Tron Theatre, Glasgow from Thursday April 19, 2012, until Saturday April 21, 2012. 8.00pm. More info: www.tron.co.uk
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