Theatre In The Valley is pleased to announce auditions
for our first, post-pandemic production:
“A Month of Sundays”
by Bob Larbey
Directed by Rick Bindhamer
Friday, March 11th & Saturday, March 12th
6:30-PM TO 8:30-PM
CHARACTERS
COOPER (Male 70+) Sharp of mind but failing of body.
WILSON (Female 22-40) An intelligent, caring and giving Nurse.
BAKER (Female 35-60) Housekeeping Supervisor with a lovely singing voice.
AYLOTT (Male 70+) Cooper's friend and escape committee cohort.
JULIA (Female 30-55) Cooper's somewhat stoic daughter.
PETER (Male 30-55) Cooper's son-in-law and straight man.
Auditions will be held at:
Green Valley United Methodist Church
A Month of Sundays is a bittersweet comedy about growing old. Cooper, has voluntarily gone into a nursing home rather than become a burden on his family. We deduce his valiant determination to hold on to his remaining dignity and independence through his banter, as he jokes with the other old folks, flirts with the female staff, and keeps a close check on his own “record of physical deteriorations”. Cooper is on stage throughout, driving the emotional development of the play with his acerbic wit and waspish asides, but we also glimpse his vulnerability.
His friend Aylott is a foil to Cooper, who is the more dominant of the two. Aylott is a sensitive gentle soul, nowhere near as hearty or self-important as Cooper. The two geriatrics agree that their lives now can only be endured if they treat life as a comedy. Whether the play is showing the painful ritual of a Sunday duty visit by Cooper’s daughter and son-in-law, or the inevitable condescension shown by the young and fit to the old and infirm, Cooper and Aylott behave with humor and wit. Yet throughout there is underlying sadness. Where some writers would highlight the harrowing elements of the gradual onset of senility, Bob Larbey shows us the same experience with a sharp comedy. The two inmates of the retirement home are covering their fear of what awaits them with a brave veneer of humor.
The drama shows how others interact with the two old people. We see how the presence of the nurse and the cleaner reinforce Cooper and Aylott’s painful consciousness of their situation, clearly indicating that this too is inevitable. They bustle about in a determined fashion, yet neither are caricatures. We see Cooper’s hurt when he learns that his grandson does not want to visit him. Yet even when the young are well-meaning in their dealings with the old, the difference is profound. The energetic and youthful Nurse Wilson is genuinely kind and tender towards Cooper; there is mutual respect.
Cooper’s daughter, Julia, shows a composite of duty, affection and irritation. Her cameo may feel eerily and uncomfortably familiar to anyone who feels they have experienced a similar situation with an elderly parent. It is all too easy to characterize the old as “difficult” or “feisty”. Yet although Cooper is now a stiff, bent old man, he is still fully in charge of his mental faculties, and has many long witty speeches where he holds forth. He runs rings around Julia’s rather dull husband, Peter, who is no match for Cooper’s biting wit. It is with despair and frustration that at one point Julia bursts out, “I do wish you’d talk to me!”
In some ways it is a play as much about the relationships between family members as about old age.
Videos
