Theatre against ageism writer’s mission

When she was 73, writer Rachel McAlpine was told by her doctor that she was likely to live for at least two more decades. It made her think: is life worth living after 90? After all, there’s a stigma about ageing: we fear our growing greying population, as though it is a tragedy. What is old anyway?

Two years later, Wellington-based McAlpine blew the candles out on her 75th birthday cake, and declared herself officially old.

McAlpine has been a writer for more than five decades. Back in the mid-70s, she was penning poems about feminism and domestic life.

Since she turned 75 and became officially “old’’, the Mount Victoria resident has been writing and blogging about ageing. It was as though finally becoming “old’’ gave her a new lease of life, when she could turn her energy into trying to make others more optimistic about notching up the years.

In 2020, around the time of her 80th birthday, she published a very good poetry book, How to be Old. She also won a Creative New Zealand grant to write a memoir about ageing. But, like many writers, she got writer’s block and realised that it would be more powerful to tell other people’s stories in fictional form, so she turned these ideas into a play.

The Secret Lives of Extremely Old People tells the stories of five fictional characters who are all in their 90s and one is over 100. Currently being staged at Circa, the characters are based on a series of interviews which McAlpine conducted with “extremely old people’’. What does that mean? She defines “an extremely old person’’ as anyone over 90.

Her mission now is theatre against ageism. We are tackling discrimination in so many other spheres – race, gender, sexuality, neuro-diversity – and McAlpine argues it’s time that ageism is addressed. This is both the way that society thinks and treats our elderly people, and what she describes as “inner ageism’’, where people doubt themselves with the passing years.

Embracing extra years

Back to her story. The writer of 30 published books had thought each year she experienced after the age of 75 might see her fading away. Instead, she did a “boot camp’’ to embrace those extra years. “The main thing that it changed was my inner ageism because I’d realised I was so shocked when I found I was expected to live to my late 90s. But then I thought, “why does that seem horrible to me? That’s really weird. You’ve been given 25 years on a plate. That’s a gift’.’’

In the play directed by Robin Payne, the five characters tackle sex, death and euthanasia. Peggy (Annie Ruth) and Tom (Lloyd Scott) live in a resthome; Puti (Grace Hoete) is a Māori writer in her 90s who was banned from learning te reo as a child; Gilbert (Gary Young) is an economics professor, while Zinnia (Anna O’Brien) is a free-spirited musician still performing in her 90s.

The actors are aged from 45 through to their late 70s. That was deliberate: the director thought that nonagenarian actors might not have the stamina for nightly performances over three weeks.

There’s another reason for casting a range of actors: we often feel younger than our biological age. “Sometimes you’ll feel like you’re in your 40s and sometimes you’ll feel like you’re five,’’ she says.

Each of the actors comes on stage talking about their character and what ageing means to them. “We all feel younger than we are and the older you get the younger you feel relatively,’’ McAlpine says. “From the age of 60, you can take off about 20 years.’’

One of her friends is the play’s publicist, Colleen McColl, who turned 83 this week. McColl sits in for the interview, dressed in a canary yellow jumper and stylish spectacles resembling the New York senior influencer, Iris Apfel.

Between questions about the play, we talk about how old we really feel. McColl has days where, she smiles, “I feel like I’m 21.’’

Ageing well

I’m 54. I want to know: what’s the playwright’s secret to ageing well?

McAlpine ticks all the boxes: she swims in the sea with her grandson, does Pilates and yoga classes at Freyberg gym, walks everywhere, dances, blogs, and has a few writing projects on the go. “I’ve got four projects at the moment which is probably one too many,’’ she smiles.

With four children in their 50s and four grandchildren, longevity may be in the genes as her five sisters are still alive – the oldest one is 87, while she is number three of the six. Home is an apartment in Mount Victoria where she lives alone, although the residents regularly meet for a community dinner. McAlpine is “by far the oldest’’.

Her play – named by a vote after she put it on her blog to see what her readers thought – is “not a play for old people’’ and she has loved sitting among a mixed-aged audience. She hopes they will walk away feeling more optimistic about ageing. “There’s a lot of research now that says that being optimistic powerfully affects what happens to you and they say it adds up to seven years to your life.’’

Most of those she interviewed for her play were just happy to be alive – which is the point the script aims to get across. And each decade brings new challenges and attitudes, says McAlpine. Two characters, Gary and Puti, talk about death. But they don’t go on about little things, or overshare details of their ups and downs.

“At that age, it becomes about survival. At that age, none of them went on and on about their sickness. When you've had cancer twice, it's not news anymore.’’

“They’re all glad to be alive. And that's not what you necessarily expect. It's not true of every 90-year-old in the world. One of the people I interviewed said, I'm glad to be alive, but not opposed to dying. They're all still getting a kick out of life.’’

“Peggy says in the play that most people think old people are sort of useless, and sick and miserable. People just have a really negative view of older people and we need to change that.’’

As we leave, I tell her she has inspired me as I’d like to write a play one day. And I do a quick mathematical count: maybe there is no rush. Maybe I’ll have at least 30 years, possibly 40.

“... I was so shocked when I found I was expected to live to my late 90s. But then I thought, “why does that seem horrible to me? That’s really weird. You’ve been given 25 years on a plate. That’s a gift’.’’ Rachel McAlpine

– The Secret Lives of Extremely Old People, is playing at Circa Theatre until December 17.