Special Event: Much Ado About Dying (Cuppa Screening) (15)

The Hippodrome is proud to present a special screening of this warm, intimate, honest, funny and profoundly moving documentary about ageing and familial caring in partnership with Falkirk Health and Social Care Partnership, and Falkirk and Clackmannanshire Carers’ Centre. This morning’s screening will be followed by an informal get-together, facilitated by team members from both organisations, with complementary light lunch.

Simon Chambers is shooting a film in India when his uncle David calls him with a message of doom: “I think I may be dying.” What the viewer doesn’t yet know is that David is a total drama queen, a former actor and Shakespeare-lover who has grown old on a diet of attention and applause. Simon finds his life drastically interrupted and everything that could go wrong does go wrong as he tries to help his uncle have a good death.

David’s anarchic spirit is unbreakable. He fights with Simon, refusing to go into a care home, insisting on dying in the squalor of his unheated tumble-down house. He can’t remember where he put his false teeth but he still knows nearly all the lines from his beloved Shakespeare. David’s real life starts to echo “King Lear”, the play about an old man going mad and giving his kingdom away, as David starts giving away thousands of pounds to the hot young “carer” who pops in from time to time. Despite the house burning down, a period of homelessness, cancer, a permanent catheter, delirium from an infection, and the dreaded 'care home', they create an award-winning final performance to send David on his way.

Winner of Best Directed Film at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam

Winner: Best Documentary at Merlinka International Queer Film Festival (Serbia)

Winner: Audience Award for Best Film at North East International Film Festival (UK)

Winner: Best Feature at DocUtah 2024

Winner: Best Film at Jakarta Independent Film Festival

Winner : Best Film at Milton Keynes International Film Festival

Sheffield DocFest 2023

Copenhagen International Documentary Festival 2023

Helsinki Documentary Film Festival 2023

Santa Barbara Int’l Film Festival, February 2024