Piece of Mind

I went into the city on Friday to see the play Piece of Mind that my friend produced.  Left Lane Productions is the proudction company.  The play was performed at Classic Stage Company on East 13th Street.  It is one of the many plays being put on by  production companies around the city through the Fringe Festival. 

I am really glad that I went.  If I was in going to be in the city for the next 2 weeks, I'd probably see a different play every night.  There is really a wealth of interesting stuff out there that might never have had the chance to perform to an audience of NYers if it wasn't for this Festival. 

Piece of Mind is about Alzheimer's.  An awful disease that affects so many people.  My Grandmother got dementia about a year before she passed away.  It is awful.  It isn't the same thing but it is similar.  Alzheimer's generally affects younger people where is dementia is something that generally comes on much later in life.  My Grandmother was living between life and death.  She didn't know what was going on.  She was confused.  She thought I was just graduating from college and wanted to know what I was going to do with my life.  My life already had 3 kids in it.  It was heartbreaking.

In this play, there are a cast of characters.  Over the course of an hour, each actor plays a few different characters that are either victims of this disease or care takers or family members.  There stories each give the audience an insight into how one person's illness affects everyone around them.

Very well done play.  Some of the actors were much better than others but the writing was good.  It isn't a subject that most people want to delve into and I give the producer, director and writer huge kudos for just doing that.  I left thinking this play should be shown to a larger audience to understand more about the disease.  Where and who to I am not sure.  I am also not sure what the answer is when you see other people dealing with an awful disease like this.  There are no cures.  Just heartache.