Becoming Cicely was inspired by my wonderful Gran and my work with the Alzheimers Society. It was scratched as part of 'First Bite' festival at Mac Birmingham in April 2017 and I am planning on developing it over the coming months and make a short film adaptation of it this autumn. Watch this space!
Cicely would talk to the birds outside her window. They held all her secrets. One day she let go of trying to remember them. Instead, she marvelled at the magic in the world, singing to the birds and realising they sang back! Cicely had Alzheimers disease. After she died, Olivia inherited a box of letters. In them she discovered the granny the illness had hidden. Trying to understand more about Alzheimers, Olivia took a job leading Singalongs on Dementia wards. There she discovered she could connect to a part of people that had been lost. Through Singing. Becoming Cicely conjures up the magic that reveals itself when we come to terms with our own mortality.
Some Inspiration -
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end;
Each changing place with that which goes before,
In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
Nativity, once in the main of light,
Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d,
Crooked eclipses ’gainst his glory fight,
And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.
Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth
And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,
Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,
And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:
And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,
Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.
—William Shakespeare