A lovely review for Joseph's recent radio 4 play 'How Did I Get Here' has been posted by The Stage. The play is available to listen again on BBC iPlayer.
Jonathan Myerson’s play plunges into the disturbing, schizophrenic heart of dementia, the presence almost of conjoined twins, the person that was and the person that is, by portraying them both as equally present.
Grandad (Benjamin Whitrow) is dodderish and quivery, his speech reduced by dementia to a haphazard semantic patchwork. He co-exists with Dad, a vigorous 38-year-old version of the same man, played by Joseph Millson, known for his many classic theatre roles and an increasing presence in radio drama. His feisty, sometimes tetchy persona is informed by vulnerable undercurrents, glimpses of himself in transition into Grandad’s reduced state.
A turbulent household, sketched in vividly comic scenes, flows around Grandad, with Rosie Wyatt as a spectacularly stroppy teen. Uncloying and direct, script and production unite to capture the fragmented nature of the dementia sufferer. It is a salutory reminder that the loved one is in there somewhere, beneath the depredations of a decayed brain.
Verdict: Joseph Millson and Benjamin Whitrow unite in a powerful double-pronged portrait of dementia
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