Realy Old, Like Forty Five

The government formed a research body to figure out how the society and the state should cope with the problem of aging population and thus achieve the desired cohabitation of generations. And as it often happens, the passionate desire to be efficient seriously disturbs the ethical compass of the scientists. On the other side, a perfectly ordinary family gets acquainted with the same problem, but on a very concrete level: Lyn's forgetfulness is clearly becoming a symptom of an incurable disease, her sister Alice falls and breaks her hip, and their brother Robbie's obsessively youthful image and comportment emphasise the signs of aging rather than hiding them. A difficult test for the generations of children and grandchildren, but also for them who are destined to meet close, and experience on their own skin, the bizarre ideas of the government experts incorporated into public institutions of social care.
The bitter comedy confronts our embarrassment and fears regarding aging and old age without sugar-coating. It reveals a society in which the state cold-hearted pragmatism overtakes humaneness from all sides and asks it questions directly and without hesitation. It is set in the future, but let us not fool ourselves: considering the demographic projections, the statements uttered by a government employee in the play (“the percentage of the population older that sixty has reached an astonishing thirty-eight percent”) will be true in one generation.

Tamsin Oglesby is a young, but internationally acclaimed English playwright. Really old, like forty-five is her latest play and it was first performed in year 2009 at the National Theatre in London.