Written by Ron Coleman

Directed by Magdalena Schamberger

Special Mention to James McKillop, Nancy McAdam and Agnes Houston

Review by Gabriel Rogers

Despite the recent cold weather, which has held Edinburgh in its icy grip, Ron Coleman’s Dementia the Musical manages to cut through the chill and bring much-needed warmth to the audience who gathered in The Studio Theatre. Coleman’s musical tells the story of three impressive Dementia activists; James McKillop, Nancy McAdam and Agnes Houston – who stood up to ‘the system’ and advocated for the rights of people with dementia. Coleman, who also goes by ‘The Demented Poet’ was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia and at first saw his diagnosis as “the ending point” of his life. However, after meeting Agnes, James and Nancy, Coleman was able to contextualize his own diagnosis and decided that “if they could accept their dementia diagnoses and get on with living, then so could I.” Dementia the Musical is the result of Coleman’s diagnosis and his, and indeed his fellow Dementia Activists’, choice to “get on with living”. 

Dementia the Musical opens with the three main characters, James, played by Ross Allan, Agnes, played by Kirsty Malone, and Nancy, played by Fiona Wood, dropping onto the stage. The characters fall from a neutral pose into their respective spotlights, illuminating the hospice or ‘old people’s home’ aesthetic of the play’s stage design – brilliantly created by set designer Karen Tennent. By making his characters literally and metaphorically ‘fall’ or, with the clever use of a spotlight, ‘flash’ into this hospice-aesthetic room, Coleman emphasizes the shock which people with dementia feel when they are forced into ‘care’ for want of a better word.

On the subject of care, Coleman doesn’t take aim at caregivers but instead at a broken system which trains them “to care for us, but not about us”. This battle for dignity is made against the play’s antagonist, The Rigid System, which is quite wonderfully portrayed by Pauline Lockhart. The Rigid System is boiled down into a singular person – a nasty and manipulative bureaucrat who cares little for the people she should be caring for and cares more about maintaining the “status quo”. Lockhart strolls about the stage with malicious confidence – almost like a nastier Dolores Umbridge – the infamously vindictive, pink-obsessed bureaucrat from Harry Potter. 

The setting of the hospice or old-peoples-home is important and clever as it comes to be both the ‘court’ within which the play’s dementia activists are tried by The Rigid System’s “persecution” and, indeed, the prison in which they are kept. The audience is made into the jury, which poses interesting questions of judgment and superiority over those who are ill, as they are asked to pass judgment on the dementia activists. Indeed, the theme of illness and incapability is found in the intelligent choice to replace the traditional court pulpit with the Zimmer frame, which has the effect of visually implying that the dementia activists are unable to even stand alone without help or care. However, this undermining image is broken when the three dementia activists begin their cross-examination, and they all move away from the Zimmer frame when they sing their equally impressive and beautiful musical pieces. James’ song does a fantastic job of humanizing his character as he expresses his own identity. Allan’s vocals are jovial and light, and he plays his role with a comfortable authenticity which infects the audience. His repetition of “My name is James” does away with the dehumanizing work of The Rigid System. Malone and Wood do a similarly wonderful job in providing their characters with real and intricate lives outside of the oppressive realm of the system – whether that’s through Nancy’s life-affirming garden or Agnes’ own family. The three actors combine well to make a powerful statement against the unfeeling, aptly named, Rigid System.  

The play ends with a heartfelt nod to the very real people who inspired Coleman’s impressive Dementia the Musical. James McKillop, Nancy McAdam and Agnes Houston are all shown in actuality on a screen brought right to the front of the stage – rightly placing them at the centre of their own story. The final words of the play, delivered by Agnes, summarise the play wonderfully, as she states, “I’m Agnes, I’m still here, I’m still me, I’m still a Dementia Activist”. Whilst the word inspiring can often be cliched and patronizing in discussions of illness and disability in theatre, there can be no doubt that the work done by Coleman and the paired direction of Magdalena Schamberger deserves to be described as inspiring in the best sense of the word!

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