Let’s get one thing straight: Ursula Martinez is comedy genius. Whether she is investigating her own fear of getting old in OAP or getting naked while performing magic tricks in the sublime La Clique – Un Spectacle Sensuel, Martinez is an expert in comedy timing, ad-libbing and stand-up. It is a pity then that she doesn’t have more to do in the show she has co-written with Mark Whitelaw (the director), as she leaves the majority of the story to an older version of herself (fantastically played by Eve Pearce) and some video clips of old people talking about the advantages (they get a bus pass!) and disadvantages of getting old.
OAP is a poignant, bittersweet tale of the fears that younger generations have of becoming old, of not leaving a mark in history, of becoming nothing, and dying alone, with no one to love or been loved back. Martinez is spot on when describing all those little things that annoy us about old people (they forget things, they repeat stories…) but she merely describes them in passing, instead of developing them properly.
During the show the audience feels unsure if they should be laughing, or saddened at Martinez words and paranoia; although funny, everything feels a bit too close to your own experiences. She keeps things light hearted though, never letting her material get too heavy and even gets the audience to play a game of Speed Bingo, which is just normal bingo but a bit faster, as some people in the audience, she points out, ‘don’t have long left’.
4/5
Adrian G. Velazquez
