TW: This play includes discussions of domestic violence.

Ella Gilbert

Written by Jennifer Lunn, Es & Flo follows the story of an older lesbian couple, who navigate the challenges of life as Es becomes more forgetful.

The play directed by Susie McKenna, opened this year in Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, before moving to London’s Kiln Theatre.

Interrupting a safe space

We watch while Es (Liz Crowther) and Flo (Doreene Blackstock) navigate a whole set of new challenges as Es gets older and becomes more forgetful. The play begins on Es’ seventy-first birthday, with the couple celebrating and dancing together.

The love between the pair is palpable. However, the impact of Es’ memory problems is scattered throughout the scene. By leaving it unaddressed, Lunn creates a particularly tense atmosphere, with an argument about power of attorney confirming our discomfort.

“Es and Flo feels very symbolic of the safe space they have created together”

The combination of the set design and endearing adoration between Es and Flo feels very symbolic of the safe space they have created together. Suddenly interrupting this safe space is the arrival of a new carer, Beata (Adrianna Pavlovska), and the unwelcome and ever-looming presence of Es’ son Peter.

A Woman’s World

As Es and Flo become more comfortable with Beata and her daughter Kasia’s (Renée Hart/Chioma Nduka) presence, so does the audience.

Pavlovska brings Beata to life in a refreshing portrayal of a care assistant, breaking free from the all-too-common belittling stereotypes we usually see. Beata is able to have difficult conversations with Flo and work towards practical solutions. By the end, she was a character that I just wanted to give a massive hug to.

Beata is a foil to Es’s daughter-in-law Catherine (Michelle McTernan), who sheds some light on Es’ difficult past. And it is only through Catherine that Peter is able to have any kind of voice. Lunn does an excellent job at creating complex characters, avoiding the classic tropes of villains and instead encouraging the audience to empathise with every character.

“Perhaps the overriding one [theme] is actually the diversity of problems modern women face”

The play’s focus lies on all these different women, their individual problems, and how they’re all slightly intertwined. Even though they all lead entirely different lives, their shared experiences and struggles enable them to find common ground. While ageing is a central theme, perhaps the overriding one is actually the myriad of problems modern women face.

Having a female-only cast and letting the characters tell their own stories, without pointing to a perpetrator, is incredibly powerful. This is intertwined with scenes and sounds of women desperately trying to use their voices, from the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp where Es and Flo met.

Joy amidst struggle

“There was many tears in the audience as we are all left fearful for what would become of the couple.”

Throughout the performance, we learn about Es’ lifelong struggle with balancing her love life and the shame and fear she attaches to it. Up until recently, Flo never pushes Es to confront her fears, but now she has no choice if the couple wants to stay together. As disaster strikes, there was many tears in the audience as we were all left fearful for what would become of the couple.

The ending of Es & Flo is perhaps a little unrealistic. We know things won’t have a fairytale happy ever after, but does that really matter? Throughout the play, these women have been reclaiming their power from those in their lives – and this is what we see in the final scene.

We know things will get more difficult as Es’ dementia advances, and the characters never pretend that it won’t. It’s just nice to see a happy ending to the first hurdle.

Es & Flo weaves joy throughout a difficult story. Between Lunn’s writing and Crowther’s performance, Es & Flo shows that amidst the chaos and fear of dementia, you can still find joy and so much love.

Es & Flo has now closed at Kiln Theatre. You can follow the writer here for future updates on the play.

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Featured image courtesy of simpleinsomnia on Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.

Ella is History and Spanish student at the University of Sheffield. She is the social media manager for Empoword and a keen writer for various publications. When not writing or studying (which is far more often than she'd like to admit), you can find her exploring the outdoors, going out for drinks with friends, or in bed with Netflix and TikTok.

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