Age Is a Feeling - by Haley McGee (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

2022 Edinburgh Fringe First Award

Your life from the day you turn twenty-five through to your death. All the chances you get to change course and all the things you leave unsaid.

Inspired by interviews with hospice workers, conversations with mystics and trips to the cemetery, Age is a Feeling is a gripping story that wrestles with the glorious and melancholy uncertainties of human life. A covert rallying cry against cynicism and regret, it's an uplifting exploration of chance, morality and living with verve.

Haley McGee's one-person play was produced by Soho Theatre, directed by Adam Brace, and first performed at Summerhall during the 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where it was adored by audiences, acclaimed by critics, and awarded several prizes including a Fringe First. It transferred to Soho Theatre, London, for several runs.

Each performance was shaped by random selections made by the audience. This published edition, illustrated by Jason Logan, contains the full text of the play and offers readers a complete experience, as well as a blueprint for future productions.

Review Quotes

"An astonishing dive into the future... a funny and wistful solo show that chronicles turning 25 and explores the decades ahead... as breathtaking as it is moving... heartbreaking and fascinating." --Guardian

"A tender, wise, wry, gut-wrenching monologue." --Telegraph

"Accomplished and poignant... a brilliant reflection of the suppleness of memory." --WhatsOnStage

"A gentle, loving, heart-breaking, and yet regularly funny affair: an audacious attempt to capture the full absurdity of the human condition." --Quintessential Review

"McGee makes distinctive and distinctively different theatre... her prose often has an assassin's sharpness... [this is] a show which knows exactly what it's doing and how it's doing it, and it is prepared to take its time so that it turns the screws before it pierces the heart. But make no mistake, it will make you weep." --Stagedoor

"Beautifully written... an immensely skilful exercise in storytelling... Half the audience is sobbing by the end." --The Stage

"A prodigiously wise, sad and beautiful contemplation of a life... a beautiful work that makes you feel every age in its protagonist's long life." --Time Out

"Cleverly conceived... a decades-long, fathoms-deep yarn about life and death, ambition and resentment, illness and ageing, and, well, just about everything that constitutes existence... a sensitive, smartly structured piece of writing, full of wit and an astonishing amount of wisdom." --Scotsman

About the Author