Bag Lady is, I think, about the varying degrees of mental health issues a sufferer endures. However, confusingly, levered into the first half hour is a rant about the historical mistreatment of Afro Caribbeans in the 19th century. Whether this was a signal of Eve's deteriorating mental state wasn't made clear. Maybe her cultural sense of victimisation gave her some justification for her poor mental health. Is she really mentally ill or just culturally bitter?
Eve's bustling entrance onto the stage amid a confusion of her wordly goods in a myriad of bags is followed by her ordering the contents in a way that only she can make sense of. She clutches the debris she considers her life to her chest like a security blanket. However, contrary to the title, Eve is not homeless, she is not completely dysfunctional. She has a house and a life. It is just that her life is contained in bags which she can easily move around as she tries to decide what she can afford to discard. There follows a series of flashbacks, interspersed with delusional episodes, illustrating her journey to her present state. A history of alcohol and physical abuse may explain her current problems which she tries to articulate as only a gutter philosopher can.
What can be in no doubt is that Flo Wilson's portrayal of Bag Lady Eve is a powerhouse of a performance as she veers from commentator to analyst to abusee; the light and dark in her performance reflecting the rising and falling of Eve's mental state. The drama and depression is interspersed with humour, as so often happens in life if you look for it.
Bag Lady is on at Upstairs at The Western until Friday 24 October and on tour
© Paul Towers 24/10/2014
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