BWW Reviews: LET ME STAY, Purcell Room, September 3 2014

Let Me Stay is Julie McNamara's love letter to her mother, Shirley McNamara, The Queen of the Mersey.

Shirley's royal status was earned through a larger than life personality woven out of Liverpool's love of a laugh, her own striking looks (in one photo from the 60s, she has something of Christine Keeler's irresistible allure) and a personality that could roll with the punches that came as part and parcel of working class life in the late 20th century. A natural networker and performer, a woman without an off-switch, Shirley was one of those "once met, never forgotten" people who can brighten any day. But Shirley is now living - and living well - with dementia.

Julie McNamara tells of her mother's life with wit and warmth, a touch of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads floating in and out of bittersweet tales of a life well lived, now drawing to a close. There's the less than strict adherence to the word of the priest, the songs sung with gusto, the families and friends entertained. And, more recently, there's the joyous welcoming of strangers, greeted as long lost friends, then instantly made strangers again as mind and memory flashes on and off; of the restaurants filled with high spirits (perhaps overfilled for some tastes); and of a relatonship between mother and daughter that has ebbed and flowed, but now seems stronger than ever.

It's not quite a warts and all account of the cruel toll dementia can take on its sufferers and on those who love them, but it's no sugar-coated sentimental trip down memory lane either. Julie's stories about Shirley capture a life - indeed, a way of life - now largely as extinct as the docks and industries that supported it. The stories also capture what it means to be a daughter or son of an ailing parent - how to do the right thing, how to embrace the moment and how to celebrate past, present and future. It's a future that many of us will face - and we'll do it all the better with the knowledge that comes from breaking dementia's taboo status held by so many.

Let Me Stay, a Vitalxposure production, will also be performed in October in Wolverhampton and Scotland.

To post a comment, you must register and login.