u3a Theatre Group - Apologia by Alexi Kaye-Campbell

It was hard to believe that this was an amateur production (Bromley Little Theatre - 12th September) - all six cast members were quite brilliant. Kristin’s birthday party turned into a disaster starting with the oven not working and featuring family tensions and clashing views. Kristin’s son, Peter, a successful banker, and his Christian American girl friend, Trudi, were the first to arrive, followed by Claire, the two-timing girlfriend of her second son, Simon, and Kristin’s friend Hugh. Peter met his girlfriend at a prayer meeting and Kristin, a feminist and communist, can’t decide if being a Christian is worse than her son’s job as a banker. Kristin is a well-known art historian, an idealist, who fled America to make her home in Europe. Her recently published book does not mention her two sons taken by their father when they were very young. The question which has tormented the sons is why she did not try to win them back, why wasn’t she there for them, why did she have us? Simon misses the dinner party but comes later with a bloodied hand which his mother treats while he tells her about a scary incident in Genoa which haunts him to this day and is the cause of his subsequent breakdowns. Where was she when he needed her then?

It was hard not to feel sympathy for Kristin at the end when she clearly feels pain and self-recrimination for the past.

An engrossing play which gave us much food for thought on how we see ourselves and how others see us. Thank you to Mary for organising yet another great theatre afternoon.

Contributed by Ann Wright