Notes to Future Self

Synopsis

"Judy’s my mom. It’s an understatement to say she’s a bit of a hippy. I mean who else but a New Ager calls their baby ‘Philosophy Rainbow’? I try to go by ‘Sophie’." Sophie and Calliope have never been to school. Their mum ran away from home when she was seventeen to join the New Age movement and the girls have been raised in Goa, San Francisco and Morroco at a series of ashrams, communes and impromptu raves. Then one day Sophie gets ill and the family has to return to Birmingham. Sophie and Calliope are introduced to a strange new world where meditation and tree-hugging are replaced with Maths homework and television. They’re also introduced to Daphne: the grandmother that the girls have never met. And it’s against this bewildering new backdrop - the normality she’s always longed for - that Sophie must come to terms with her own mortality.

Our Review:

9 March 2011

When the central discourse of a production is the untimely death of a fourteen year old girl due to terminal cancer one would expect to leave downhearted and subject to a performance laden with sentimentality. However, Lucy Caldwell’s Notes to Future Self manages to avoid most of these pitfalls and presents its ever entertaining story through the means of an enlightening and engaging script.

The young and terminally ill Sophie is played with an acute recognition for the comedy of the piece by Imogen Doel as she manages to capture the childlike perspective of the unfolding events. Whilst Doel’s ever enthusiastic narration drives the performance and most definitely brings the soul to the production her characterisation can sometimes teeter on being overly childish at times, especially lacking the surprising maturity of most 14 year old’s when discussing subjects such as sex or relationships.

Doel is supported by an adequate if mostly functional cast who serve their part ...

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