Review: AGE IS A FEELING, Soho Theatre

'Age is a feeling. You'll feel it.'

You'll also feel joy, grief, sorrow, nostalgia, and every other emotion in Haley McGee's magical solo show. Taking us from age 25 to death, this is a feat of theatre that captures the full human experience, presenting the highs and lows with remarkable honesty and warmth.

When I walk in on Thursday evening, the atmosphere in the Soho Theatre mainstage is more sombre than usual. A sweeping orchestral score plays as we are greeted by a white lifeguard chair, cast in soft pink light and surrounded by a circle of towering flowers. Set Designer Zoë Hurwitz creates something out of a folk legend, mystical and intriguing. As the show begins, we hear the rushing sounds of a river and McGee takes the stage.

What follows is the story of an entire lifetime, told in the second person. McGee picks up cards from the plants around her, each with a single word on, and asks audience members to pick which stories we will hear and which we won't. The concept is that no one can know everything about your life, not even yourself. It's a strong, unique idea, and beautifully combines the set and performance structure into one.

McGee herself is a magnetic presence, calm and captivating. She speaks with a measured pace, enigmatically keeping the secrets of the stories we don't get to hear. It's impressive the extent to which she manages to hold the entire room's attention in a show that's all storytelling.

The narrative itself is full of little details, recurring characters, the universal and the specific. Your best friend buys you oysters. You reject that marriage proposal. Your childhood friend passes away. You grieve your parents. The second person address becomes almost unnoticeable as the play unfolds and we are brought into its world. Repeated phrases and gestures created a poetic rhythm, an echo of the cycles of life, while subtle changes to lighting expand the stories outwards. Director Adam Brace has done a stellar job at taking the written text to something that feels truly living and breathing.

Age Is A Feeling is both a very easy and very difficult show to watch. McGee lulls the audience into a sense of security before hitting us with cold, hard truths, with life's hardest moments coming out of nowhere. As the show nears its conclusion, we know what is to come. While in many ways the experience is life-affirming, it also worms its way into your brain, reminding you of the inevitability of illness and death.

It's clear that the show has a wide appeal, with an audience of truly all ages. Age Is A Feeling is now on its second Soho Theatre run, following a successful run at Edinburgh Fringe - in a show that attracts all kinds of audiences, there will always be more people that want a ticket.

It's said that art imitates life, but Age Is A Feeling goes one step further: more than an imitation, this play is life, from beginning to end.

Age Is A Feeling runs at Soho Theatre until 11 March

Photo Credit: Erin Hopkins

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