Exit Stage Left

When young actress, Grace, knocks on the theatre dressing room door of her older, experienced leading man, Frankie Lucas, she is knocked back at what she finds. She intended to share her joy with the news that their production is being transferred to London’s West End is confirmed, but Frankie is in no mood to share in that joy. As he removes his makeup, he appears to be removing the veneer of the happy, confident person everyone knew him to be. Cracks have been showing recently, and he has become defeatist and distant from his colleagues. Along with his change of personality, his speech is becoming slurred. She plucks up the courage to challenge him. His recent performances and mood mirror the behaviour of someone fighting alcoholism. Frankie agrees that it looks like that and wishes that was the truth. However, the truth is that Frankie has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and his outlook on life is one of negativity and melancholy. He admits to Grace that his physician has offered him medication to help slow down his deterioration, but he refuses to take it. He is full of regret, but what saddens him most is that, as the star of the show, he’ll be letting the whole cast down. No Frankie – no West End. Frankie’s rampant self-pity and surrender of his fate causes an exasperated Grace to reveal the personal story of her mother’s illness and death when Grace was just a child. She explains that she was a fighter, not a quitter, and because of that fight, they spent extra time together that wouldn’t have been possible had her mother simply given up, like Frankie. The story causes Frankie to re-think his outlook and agrees to start taking the medication to hopefully give him time and the cast a chance to make some special memories on the West End stage. They leave the dressing room and join the party along the passageway.