While enjoying ROSIE, RUTH & SUSAN tonight I couldn’t help but wonder what will be the preoccupations of the current generation when they are grandparents.

We know the concerns of the grandmothers who populate this stage: school; siblings; work rather than career; marriage; children. Rosie, Ruth and Susan’s stories have been told to the three adult grandchildren  who have created a theatre piece which blurs documentary, verbatim and alienation into a black and white echo of voices seldom acknowledged by the young.

Rosie is a go-getter with self-confessed liking for Scandinavian men. From a Monty Pythonish ‘I was poorer than you’ background she, very unusually for that time, built a career.

Ruth on the other hand is firmly told by her mother that she will take that job at the local council rather than the dream P&O job she has just been accepted to.

The final elder is Susan. She is failing as the toughness of the life which saw her escape a Scottish coal mining town takes its inevitable toll.

Regardless of gender, the cast of Finn Davis, Charlie O’Grady and Lucinda Vitek play these women. They also play themselves asking the questions, the answers to which will become the play. Plus various children and grandchildren for context.

There is care here and love and respect in the way the material is treated. Rosie, Ruth and Susan are alive for the audience but also seen through modern eyes, especially Susan who is losing the ability to speak for herself.

Director Vitek has chosen to avoid the traditional method of creating a character. There is no exterior manifestation of age or youth. Instead the three black costumed artists blend into whoever they are. Rosie and Susan are distinguished by accents but body language and vocal expression can be read as the audience pleases. And the audience needs to be engaged.

There is no seating. The performance is in a glass fronted gallery. The white walls are decorated with box brownie sized photos of the families, one salient image repeated often among the one hundred and fifty or so artfully tacked up photos.

I threw myself, languidly I hope, on the stairs for the entire show and there are probably hidden chairs for other senior citizens such as myself.

The characters move around the space and make eye contact, speaking directly to audience members and this technique at once pulls you into their world and yet your own reserve causes you to watch from the outside.

I loved this treatment of the women’s stories though I did find the show a little too long despite the interest I had in their lives.

I certainly left wondering where they are now and how their end will play out. Furthermore I wondered whether the three young people who appear to understand and acknowledge the women in those photos around the space will, many years hence, repeat their stories to grandchildren who love them. Just as ROSIE, RUTH & SUSAN have done.

ROSIE, RUTH & SUSAN is presented by Smoking Gum Theatre Company and plays at M2 Gallery, Elizabeth Street , Surry Hills until August 3. For more about ROSIE, RUTH & SUSAN, visit http://smokinggumtheatre.com/rosie-ruth-susan/