Simeon's Watch

Simeon's Watch - a puzzle in the family at Christmas

Riding Lights Theatre Company are bringing Simeon’s Watch to Friargate Theatre, YO1 9SL on 12th and 13th October.

Both comic and moving, Simeon’s Watch looks at three generations of one farming family as they cope with the process of growing older.

Leah keeps losing things. First it was her knitting, then the sheep, and now her father keeps wandering off. She frequently loses her temper and some days she thinks she’s losing her mind.

Or is it her father Simeon who’s doing that? Staring out of the window, muttering about angels, waiting with unshakeable conviction for ‘God knows what’. It’s all a game to Leah’s daughter, which only makes things worse.

Something has to change.

As the nights draw in, watching her father’s dementia slow him down and her daughter’s future race ahead, Leah seems to be waiting too - but for what?

Written by Bridget Foreman (In Fog and Falling Snow, Inheritance) the play is part of Riding Lights Unwrapping the Present project.

Through a series of drama workshops, the company worked with people living with dementia, as well as their families and carers. The aim was to explore how imaginative, drama-based approaches could improve communication within the whole family. The playfulness of children and teenagers was seen to have a hugely beneficial impact on engaging with the confusions that ageing can bring for some people.

Reflecting on writing Simeon’s Watch Bridget Foreman said:

“Change can bring real challenges to families, particularly the changes that threaten to alter our relationships with the people we love most.

As we’ve worked on the creation of the play, we’ve spent time with families and groups who are facing some of these challenges, including dementia, exploring some imaginative ways to improve communication and transform relationships. The play reflects some of these insights.”

Opening at Friargate Theatre in York on 12th October, Simeon’s Watchis touring the UK in the run up to Christmas, finishing in Southampton on the 10th December. A full list of tour dates can be found at ridinglights.org/simeon.

Tickets are available from the Riding Lights box office by calling 01904 613000, or online at ridinglights.org/simeon.