Age is a Feeling

I'm a little late to the mark with this post, but there is one more week to catch Haley McGee's Age is a Feeling at Soulpepper.  While most nights are sold out, it may be worth dropping by to see if a ticket gets returned and they can squeeze you in.  I believe there are still a few tickets left for Sat. evening and the Sun. matinee on the 23rd.

This is an interesting show, since there is a strong random component to it.  She tells about her life from 25 to 80 or so(!), so even if there are some autobiographical elements up through 30 or so, the rest is clearly an imagined forward projection of her life, or more likely drawing on other family members to fill in the details from later in life.  Quite a few details are common to all versions of the performance, particularly interactions with her family.  But there are 12 episodes that fill in around this outline, and the audience chooses which 6 to hear on any given performance.  In fact, the way the episodes are chosen, one would have to show up 3 times to hear all the stories, and of course the odds are low that you would hear that one missing story...  So not a show for people with very strong feelings of FOMO, but otherwise it is a terrific performance.  I did go twice, and I managed to hear 10 of the 12 vignettes, so I think I did pretty well.

The episodes are sort of clustered.  There are three that mostly involve Haley's quirky best friend: Oysters, Hospital and Diner.  There are two that are about a frenemy: Fist and Inbox.  There are two about a major flame: Bus and Teeth.  Then there are one-offs.  Book is about a book that her father wrote, giving slightly deeper insights into her relationship with her father.  Eggs is about a midlife crisis that Haley's character suffers.  Plane is about meeting a random stranger with an interesting take on life.  Dog is a sad story about a dog that Haley owned.  Finally, Crabapple is a meditation on Haley's last partner.  I ended up seeing all of them except Fist and Inbox.  In a way that is probably more satisfying because I didn't hear only part of the backstory about her and her frenemy (and I did hear all the episodes about her best friend).  I think the only thing I would have changed would have been to hear Crabapple twice instead of Diner twice, but that is an incredibly minor quibble.

As I said, I thought it was a great show, and I would encourage you to check in out in its last week.