The Carer at the Maidment Theatre

This is a heartfelt celebration of the quiet heroism that arises when ordinary people are drawn into the ordeal of caring for a loved one who is sick and dying.

If that doesn't sound like great night out, the play will confound your expectations by approaching its subject with a cheerful tone and an engaging sense of humour.

The one-man show centres around the character of George - a successful businessman who took early retirement to care for his wife, who has succumbed to Alzheimer's.

The drama unfolds as George holds a series of elegiac conversations with his recently deceased wife.

His recollections are constantly interrupted by phonecalls from family members, friends, and business colleagues - all of whom remain oblivious to George's private struggle to regain a sense of normalcy.

The use of reminiscence makes it difficult for the audience to empathise directly with the joys and torments of caring for a loved one. The closest we come to experiencing anguish is a moment when George awakes from a haunting dream and confronts the silence of four in the morning.

However, the distancing of emotion allows for a wry sense of humour and moments of tender poignancy.

The play is most effective when it explores the paradox of a decision to care for an individual leading to alienation from the community.

In a finely judged performance, Ray Henwood maintains an affable exterior while making masterful use of gesture and vocal inflection to reveal a variety of conflicting emotions.

He brilliantly conveys the humiliation of having to beg a younger colleague for an opportunity to return to work and is surprisingly moving when he wrestles with the big spiritual questions as if straining to solve a difficult crossword puzzle.

If the play is not completely satisfying it is perhaps because the main character seems more of a type than an individual.

There is little to indicate the play's Australian origins and the introduction of New Zealand place names simply underlines the feeling that George could come from anywhere.

But the production has an honest, unpretentious quality that suggests the writing is firmly grounded in personal experience.