REVIEW: AGE IS A FEELING by Haley McGee at Soho Theatre until 11 March 2023

‘an easy rapport with the audience … totally in control of her material, McGee is a charming and friendly performer’ ★★★ ½

Haley McGee, Canadian writer-performer in her thirties (sorry if that’s very wrong Haley), has written the story of her life, from her time as a young girl to her imagined death at the ripe old age of ninety-odd. She tells it in a sequence of distinct stories that her audience selects, and sets them in a framing narrative to keep it all tidy. It’s a very well-crafted, very easy to follow, excellent fun, and sometimes profound.

It’s really unfair to presume that the stories are less true because the presentation is so slick and seamless, but if it were a little rougher, a little more spontaneous, it would strike harder. Haley McGee does stand-up and improv, so presumably she would be more than capable of delivering in a slightly less controlled fashion. She has an easy rapport with the audience, she is totally in control of her material, she is a charming and friendly performer. A bit more urgency, a bit more passion, would make the stories more affecting.

But this is nit-picking. Haley McGee is an excellent story-teller who has written a piece that explores life, death, and everything, that doesn’t get preachy, that has great momentum, that introduces us to a bunch of interesting people and a distinguished dog, and that has a lot of wisdom to share within its engaging flow.

Soho Theatre presents

AGE IS A FEELING

BY HALEY MCGEE

Tue 14 Feb – Sat 11 Mar 2023 3.00pm, 7.15pm

Box Office: https://sohotheatre.com/shows/age-is-a-feeling/

Reviewed by Chris Lilly

Chris read Drama at Hull University in the 70s, stage-managed a bit, spent 8 years as a community arts worker in Tower Hamlets, did the occasional tech job, then taught in East London and participated in shedloads of community theatre. Since retiring from teaching, he has acquired an MA in Theatre from the University of Surrey and indulged a passion for live performance anywhere in London courtesy of his Freedom Pass.