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What can these young children tell us about ageing, wrinkles, slippers and sex? Maddy Costa on an ambitious new show.

Maddy Costa
Tuesday 7 September 2010 21.59 BST

The first week of rehearsals is always sticky. But in the case of On Ageing, it’s been particularly tricky. David Harradine and Samantha Butler, the show’s co-directors, faced incomprehension as they outlined the opening scene. One actor stopped rehearsals to say: “I know it’s none of my business, but why am I doing this?” Another had to be told what the word “horny” meant.

This is because the cast of On Ageing, which opens at London’s Young Vic later this month, are all children: the eldest is 12, the youngest just seven. But the text has been shaped from conversations with people much older, talking about their experience not only of being old, but of the process of ageing – with topics ranging from wrinkling skin to the importance of slippers, and, of course, sex.….Continue Reading