The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, about a jaunty group of British pensioners on retirement adventures in India, had considerable success with an older demographic in the cinema this year. Old Money, by newcomer Sarah Wooley, is the nearest theatre has come to following suit, offering up the indomitable Maureen Lipman as Joyce, an increasingly merry widow.
A third medium, television, might have been an even neater fit for this cosy drama with its short scenes, skilfully delineated — nifty work from designer Tim Shortall — by an ingenious collection of lampshades. Barring the odd unlikely friendship with a stripper, there are no surprises lurking in Joyce’s narrative arc, as she emerges from 40 years of dull but respectable marriage into tentative self-fulfilment and a natty red coat.
Wooley’s writing is, though, pleasingly sensitive to the peculiar strains of modern-day family life, where grandparents are a vital source of childcare, as well as loans to grown-up children. Tracy-Ann Oberman makes Joyce’s harried 42-year-old daughter Fiona, saddled with a solipsistic failed musician of a husband, convincingly vehement about the propriety of her own claims on her mother’s time and resources. I must admit that I was rooting for her but I suspect that my mother would have been cheering in a very different direction.
Terry Johnson’s production is occasionally under-energised but Lipman, watchable as ever and intriguingly tamped down to start with, jollies things along with her ability to triple the humour quotient in the most unlikely-sounding line.
Until January 12 (020 7722 9301, hampsteadtheatre.com)
