Ed Harris (I)

Radio Times review

Anya's life is not good. She is desperately trying to keep her father's tattoo business afloat, while caring for the difficult and visually-impaired man himself at home. She could really do with some help on both fronts.

It seems as if her prayers have been answered when she swats a tiny, darting creature that oozes out the most remarkable-coloured ink. Within a matter of days, her client base is growing, with people dazzled by the creative, vibrant tattoos now on offer. Life changes for her dad too - his eyesight improves and his mood matches it. But Anya's magical ink supply decides to fight back. The pixies, for it is they that have been supplying her with their lifeblood, hire a lawyer.

Ed Harris's script is comical and fantastical, but with every fairy's demise comes a Brothers Grimm-like cautionary note that you don't get anything for nothing in this - or the pixie - world.

Richard Briers stars with Rory Kinnear in Ed Harris's delicate, distinctive play about an old man remembering and disremembering. He's having a dialogue with his younger self (hence the double lead casting), revolving round pictures that lodge in the mind and why they linger. The thing is, some of it is being spoken out loud to the nurse who's checking him over. When she tells him there's a smart strange coat in the kitchen he gets very upset. Then all sorts of voices from the past flood in, echoing memories of childhood, of first love.

Alf is an elderly gentleman and he's getting very confused. He can hear voices in his head and one of them is his own from the days when he was married. This play by Ed Harris is billed as a tender comedy and there are moments when Alf's confusion becomes gently amusing. But the overall feeling is one of sadness and loss. Alf is grieving fomr his wife, but also mourning the troubled state of their marriage and the onset of dementia. He describes the attack upon his memory as like that of an imperial army, with different countries falling every day. Richard Briers and Rory Kinnear play Alf the older and younger with understated directness and genuine empathy. A brilliant drama.