The Wisdom of Whores

Last night I waded in to an interesting discussion about Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss at the (always interesting) Dana Centre. One woman observed that the selective memory loss that goes with Alzheimer’s could be a blessing, because it allowed people to wipe away recent bitterness and return to happier stages in their relationships.

Interesting ideas are like London buses. None for ages and then two come along at once. So today I find another upside to memory loss, described in The Guardian by author Mark Ravenhill. He’s lost six weeks of his life, part of a chain that began with HIV infection and moved through toxoplasmosis and epilepsy. As a result, he’s changed the way he thinks about narrative, and the way he writes plays. His new format — gobbets of drama interlinked but not sequential — seems ideal for our follow-the-link internet age. A new cycle of 10 plays “Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat” will be showing around London in the first three weeks of April. More info here.