Cyril's Little Moments of Weakness and Strength
The Scotsman
****
Writer Julian Garner has another quiet little masterpiece in this sweet tale of late middle age
Like a shared mug of soup on a nippy day, this moving little play is an oasis of peace in the ratehr raucous Pleasance Courtyard.
Our hero is the late-middle-aged Cyril, who spends most of his waking hours caring for his fractious, blind, wheelchair-bound older brother Josh.
This pair, a wondrous stage creation, drive each other nuts, their mutual frustration - even cruelty - tempered with deep love and loyalty. The unfussy scenes of Cyril feeding Josh, say, or checking whether he's had an 'accident', are most tender and touching.
Those who caught Julian Garner's Fringe First-winning Silent Engine last year will not be surprised: here again he provides a gently ebbing, painfully true, finely wrought piece of domestic observation.
This play is about a couple of very testing days for Cyril. Josh lives now only for his cassettes of classic football match commentaries, relying on Cyril for detailed reports on recent fixtures: "So, a good day out was had by all?" But Cyril hates the game, and, with his hands full with Josh, has next to no time for himself.
His passion is gardening: he has managed to rear some fuchsias, despite the October chill.
The catalyst for trouble is gentle, lonely Alice, rising 60, who follows the brothers home from a troublesome shopping trip one day, returning a couple of tins of beans they've dropped: "Well, it's all money, isn't it?" Cyril befriends her, and invites her around for tea so she doesn't celebrate her birthday alone. You can just imagine how threatened Josh is.
Chaos Theatre have just the right lightness of touch for this delicate script.
James Mullighan, 16th August 2003