Written by Tim Graves and directed by Jason Marc-Williams, Walking Each Other Home gently weaves together dementia, British politics, coming out again thirty years later, and the idea of going away from home.
Frank (Christopher Poke) lives alone in the middle of nowhere in Norfolk after his wife and son Andrew die. While another son, Michael (Edward Fisher), is away in Peru, his main day-to-day support comes from Sandeep (Amirk Tumber), a mild, young Sikh carer who washes him and gently repairs his window frame by replacing a stained-glass panel.
When Michael comes back, Frank no longer remembers him. Michael is therefore forced to come out to his father again and again. Their exchanges and arguments re-trigger Michael’s most painful gay childhood wound when Frank calls him a “worthless cunt”. The tension between father and son remains brittle, awkward and emotionally clogged.
Partially autobiographical, Walking Each Other Home derives much of its strength from its quietly truthful details. Frank is a compelling mixture of the fleshy reality of dementia, such as when he sings and dances with a kettle and pineapple in his hands, and the familiar trope of someone who is confused and irritable, encaged in outdated British imperial nostalgia and deeply ingrained prejudices, easily triggered even by the word “homosexual”.
Similarly, Michael feels utterly fleshed out in his beautifully written monologue, but at the same time remains somewhat archetypal. He is a progressive leftist, deeply disappointed and betrayed by Western culture and modern capitalism, seeking spiritual comfort in “Third World” cultures, but ultimately turning out to be a “spiritual bypasser”.
While Graves beautifully interweaves the stories of these three men with slow-burn humour that is deadly funny once properly processed, the play ultimately lacks a deeper structure that might lead the audience somewhere more searching and profound. “Where does all this tie together?” “What is this play trying to tackle?” “What question is it trying to ask?” These were the questions lingering in my mind throughout, and it was difficult to find an answer within the play beyond framing it as a reassuring, didactic therapy session.
Michael’s journey is evidently meaningful to the writer. However, the overall narrative struggles to land on a broader reflection. Perhaps Graves intends to connect the current political weather to this personal wound, but without a sharper perspective, the two do not fully correlate dramaturgically. This issue also surfaces in the resolution between Michael and Frank, where the emotional transformation happens abruptly, feeling more perplexing than emotionally convincing.
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