The Scourge

The Scourge (Michelle Dooley Mahon) relives visits to her mother Siobhán in a nursing home after she has been struck down by Alzheimer's disease, or what the scourge calls “death by a thousand cuts”. Through her hilarious, as well as moving memories, we are introduced to personalities, history, and a nostalgic archive of an ordinary Irish small-town family forced to become extraordinary in their attempt to cope. The production shines a light on an illness that is rarely discussed in detail. It takes us through the stages as the patient declines and describes the family's implosion, the morphing of the scourge from wide-eyed child into enfant terrible, to obese depressed recluse and her re-emergence as a creator of her one woman show – Shellshock.

Age Suitability 13+
Duration: 80 minutes, no interval.