There are quibbles with Tanika Gupta’splay, which tracks its protagonist Queenie’s (Meera Syal) traumatic decline into the pits of Alzheimer’s disease. But, almost all of them seem trivial when hit with its eventually potent effect that feels like a knife has been dug into your soul and twisted.
On the surface, Gupta’s play is a tense family drama that gets its beginnings from King Lear. Queenie is a steely, Michelin star-awarded restaurant owner, who moved to England from Calcutta. She and her three children squabble and bicker after years of unresolved disagreements but, when Queenie is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, their whole world is toppled into confusion. “It feels like the world is changing,” Queenie says.
