David Jonsson has wonderfully expressive hands, his long fingers often outstretched to communicate. His enthusiasm when describing the dishes of food animatedly or his reflecting on his unexpected first journey in a limousine charm. There is humour too, he says, "I have a feeling she may die on my birthday," and gives us a wry look.
There are too few plays which mention the menopause. Have I lost my male readers at this point? Please stay. In Deborah Bruce's new play Raya, the central figure Alex (Claire Price) is 49 and has just attended a reunion at her university organised on Facebook. Thirty years on from their October start. She has gone specifically to meet Jason (Bo Poraj) with whom she had an affair when they were undergraduates.
We start not with the economical "I am born" but towards his death at aged 100 years old on December 31st 1999, where he describes his visceral birth in Port O' Spain Trinidad a century earlier. This "little oyster" is a pale skinned baby born to a "swarthy" Gypsy whore in a place that is "a fishmonger's by day and knocking shop by night". Crinkle your noses now!