The first patient with dementia I remember meeting on clinical rotations was a charming and witty woman whose kinetic speech was a symptom of, and cover for, profound cognitive deficits. I met someone very much like her again as the curtain rose on The Waverly Gallery, a Pulitzer Prize–nominated Kenneth Lonergan play currently in revival on Broadway. “I never knew anything was the matter,” says Gladys Green, age 85, in the first of many words that will spill out of her over 2 acts. The playwright’s instructions characterize Gladys as an “immensely charming and absolutely relentless talker” who “lives for company and conversation” and “demands the full attention of her interlocutors with a cheerful and unremitting zeal that can be very wearing after a few minutes.” The opening dialogue suggests Gladys’ miscues and fumbles are a result of age-related hearing impairment, but I was fairly certain she was already symptomatic like the patient I encountered years ago. She is witty and charming, and we spend the rest of the play watching her lose her housekeys and her mind. If that story seems too familiar from our own family members and patients, there are a number of reasons to see this production. Foremost is the craft and presence of Elaine May who, perfectly cast, acts the dementia phenotype with precision, humor, vulnerability, and pathos. May’s legend dates back to her work with Mike Nichols in their comedy duo, a smart improv act that was a darling of the intellectual set in the 1950s and 1960s. (Their 1961 “Nichols and May Examine Doctors” charts the faintest of through-lines connecting May’s engagement with medical matters from her peak fame to the present.) Now nearly 87 years old, May is a petite actress who appears frail on stage, and the contrast between her slight physicality and the clear strength of intellect behind her performance makes Gladys’ decline that much more personal, as if May is anticipating it for herself and testing the experience in front of an audience to see how it will feel. Beyond May the production has a pedigreed movie star cast, and taking the likes of Joan Allen, Michael Cera, and Lucas Hedges off the silver screen onto the stage

中文翻译：

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韦弗利画廊——百老汇的痴呆症

我记得在临床轮换中遇到的第一个痴呆症患者是一位迷人而机智的女性，她的动态讲话是严重认知缺陷的症状和掩饰。当韦弗利画廊的帷幕升起时，我再次遇到了一个非常像她的人，这是一部获得普利策奖提名的肯尼斯·罗纳根 (Kenneth Lonergan) 戏剧，目前正在百老汇重演。“我从来不知道有什么问题，”85 岁的格拉迪斯·格林说，这是她在两幕中说出的许多话中的第一句话。剧作家的指示将格拉迪斯描述为“非常迷人且绝对无情的谈话者”，她“为陪伴和谈话而生”，并“以开朗和不懈的热情要求对话者的全神贯注，几分钟后可能会非常疲惫。” 开场对话表明格拉迪斯的失误和失​​误是与年龄相关的听力障碍的结果，但我相当确定她已经和我几年前遇到的那个病人一样出现了症状。她机智而迷人，我们花了整部戏看着她失去了她的房子钥匙和她的头脑。如果我们自己的家人和患者觉得这个故事太熟悉了，那么有很多理由可以看到这部作品。最重要的是伊莱恩·梅 (Elaine May) 的技艺和风度，她完美地演绎了痴呆症的表型，表现出精确、幽默、脆弱和感伤。梅的传奇可以追溯到她与迈克·尼科尔斯 (Mike Nichols) 合作的喜剧二人组，这是一个聪明的即兴表演，是 1950 年代和 1960 年代知识分子的宠儿。（他们 1961 年的“尼科尔斯和梅检查医生”描绘了梅从鼎盛时期到现在参与医疗事务的最微弱的线索。）现年近 87 岁的梅是一位身材娇小的女演员，在舞台上显得虚弱，并且她轻微的身体素质和她表演背后明显的智力力量之间的对比使格拉迪斯的衰落更加个人化，好像梅正在为自己预测并在观众面前测试体验，看看会有什么感觉。《超越五月》的制作有一个血统的电影明星演员阵容，并将琼·艾伦、迈克尔·塞拉和卢卡斯·赫奇斯等人从银幕上带到舞台上 她轻微的身体素质与表演背后明显的智力力量之间的对比使格拉迪斯的衰落更加个人化，好像梅正在为自己预测并在观众面前测试体验，看看会有什么感觉。《超越五月》的制作有一个血统的电影明星演员阵容，并将琼·艾伦、迈克尔·塞拉和卢卡斯·赫奇斯等人从银幕上带到舞台上 她轻微的身体素质与表演背后明显的智力力量之间的对比使格拉迪斯的衰落更加个人化，好像梅正在为自己预测并在观众面前测试体验，看看会有什么感觉。《超越五月》的制作有一个血统的电影明星演员阵容，并将琼·艾伦、迈克尔·塞拉和卢卡斯·赫奇斯等人从银幕上带到舞台上