With the Caxton Theatre selling out on their last play, performances of their latest offering are already at low availability and audience members should rush to get tickets for this show new writing is proving very popular in 2024. Geezers is the European premiere of a play by Tommy Lee Johnson and has been adapted for audiences in the UK.
Geezers is a comedy drama set in a retirement home. We join the action as a young man named Jack is being interviewed for a job working at the home. As a lifelong carer for his deaf mother who has sadly passed away, he starts work helping the senior citizens with their daily needs. The residents however have a different idea and from Day One manage to wind Jack up and to cause issues and problems before we dig deeper and learn of the stories behind each individual. It is a play that relishes storytelling and values memory and we realise that behind every old person is a lifetime of action and memories. Jack wants to be a writer and is tasked with writing the stories of the residents lives, but his skill is less in the writing and more in the listening and drawing out the things that they have kept hidden for so long.
The set is a light and vibrant rest room in the home with comfy chairs, music centre and TV, alcohol is banned and a magnificent Memory Tree is resplendent across one of the walls. It perfectly suggests the kind and caring nature of the home and provides an excellent playing space to recount the stories of lives well-lived.
As the boss of the home, Danielle Emmitt is perfect as Gina. She demonstrates the right levels of concern and detachment and yet carries a burden of her own which she eventually shares after much coaxing. It is a charming and well-observed performance.
The main protagonist of the show is the youthful, but seriously naïve Jack is played by James Lusty. It is easy to forget that Lusty is younger than many of the characters he plays but he does so with confidence and charisma - it cannot be easy to be the youngest member of the cast by decades! His portrayal of the socially awkward loner who has never had a real job in his life is marvellous.
Mike Wilson as Ray, a man apparently obsessed with his pillow, seems to have a relatively easy time sleeping for most of the play - or is he? We suspect that Ray's interjections come from a place of listening rather than sleeping, but Wilson really brings the character to life in his stunning recollection of his married life before the loss of his wife.
Another actor who has a challenge is Pat Carter as Emily, a woman struggling with dementia, who is visited by a woman that Emily fails to recognise but we suspect has more to say about Emily's past. Carter rises to the challenge and succeeds in portraying the sense of dissociation that accompanies the condition. Her moments of lucidity show a lovely warm character with a sense of mischief but it reminds us that that lucidity can be lost in a heartbeat.
Emily's visitor is Jenny, played by Janet Shepherd, making a welcome return to the stage after a number of years. It is a relatively small role in the context of the play but Jenny offers a touching insight into who Emily "used to be".
Anita Bennison is Kate, the much-married, former actress who was the cause of the sacking of Jack's predecessor when they had been discovered making love on the desk in the recreation room. Despite her boastful recollection of her conquests and her persistent teasing of Jack, there is a melancholy perfectly presented by Bennison. As she recounts her lost husbands (as many as Elizabeth Taylor) we are drawn into a world of glamour and luxury which has been lost in the mists of time in a lovely, sensitive performance.
Finally, Norman Dunnington plays the former USAF tech sergeant Neil, a character based on the playwright's own father. Dunnington in his first play with the Caxton Players iss masterful in his portrayal of the irascible Neil. His monologue about his wartime experiences is deeply moving and a masterclass in delivery.
All in all, director Nadine Bennett-Wood has crafted an excellent and entertaining play which will amuse and move its audience. Tickets are available through the usual outlets and I thoroughly recommend it to all.
Andy Evans 19 July 2024
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