Haley McGee's Age Is a Feeling Resonates Across Generations with Honest Portrayal of Aging
In the summer of 2024, Canadian performer Haley McGee delivered a particularly memorable performance of her acclaimed show Age Is a Feeling at a Toronto festival. The production had already earned five-star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, but this occasion held special significance. As McGee began her poignant monologue exploring life, death, and the complex process of growing older, she heard a baby cry in the audience.
The newborn slept through the remainder of the performance, but for McGee, who was newly pregnant at the time, the moment transformed the entire experience. "It framed the whole show as a conversation with this baby," McGee explains. "This is my message for you about your adult life." Now preparing to revive the piece for a London run, the playwright and actor imagines her one-year-old daughter as part of her target audience.
A Show That Challenges Life's Expectations
Age Is a Feeling presents the perspective of a 25-year-old contemplating her future, considering both major and minor choices that might lead to fulfillment. The narrative acknowledges life's unpredictable nature—the feuds, affairs, health scares, fragile friendships, and physical changes that await everyone.
"The show was a bomb to say life is long and the die isn't cast," McGee states. "And just because you don't get X or Y, doesn't mean your life isn't going to be tremendously valuable. It calmed me down about some of the boring anxieties that women my age tend to face."
Now approaching her 40s, McGee writes with wisdom that seems decades beyond her years. Her show has been performed in ten languages across China, Chile, Turkey, and other countries, with actors ranging from their mid-20s to mid-50s. Remarkably, it consistently connects with diverse audiences.
Emotional Impact Across Age Groups
"When we did it in Edinburgh, I could see everybody's faces and there would be men in their 70s wiping tears," McGee recalls. "For it to be moving people who weren't in my age bracket was amazing."
She attributes this broad appeal to what she calls her "anecdotal research." Before writing the show, McGee visited hospices, consulted with mystics, spent time in cemeteries, and gathered reflections through social media. Specific lines in the performance come directly from these experiences.
"You will find a white pubic hair" is one line sourced from Facebook that consistently earns laughter. Another about throwing out your back while stepping out of the shower similarly resonates with audiences.
"It's like being a psychologist or a therapist, getting to put myself inside the experience of other people," McGee says of her research process. "I cry so much when I'm writing—to the point I can't write in a cafe."
Improvisational Roots and Unpredictable Performances
The memory of the Toronto baby remains vivid for McGee, but she's not easily fazed as a performer. Having studied improvisation with Second City in Chicago before moving to London and joining the Free Association improv troupe, she thrives on spontaneity.
One of her drama school teachers once told her: "You know, Haley, you really do your best work when you don't quite know what you're going to do."
This improvisational background informs Age Is a Feeling's structure. The show incorporates built-in uncertainty, with audience choices determining which stories McGee tells. Postcards with words like Teeth, Bus, and Oyster surround her on stage, each triggering different narratives. With twelve stories total and only six told per performance, each show becomes unique.
"Like life, Age Is a Feeling is unpredictable," McGee notes. "It has innumerable possible variations, ranging from the joyful to the bleak."
Personal Evolution and Artistic Legacy
"Sometimes it feels like there are a lot of highs and lows," McGee observes. "Other times it feels like, 'Oh, my God, what a brutal existence!' Two of my good friends from school happened to see one of the most depressing versions. There was not one story chosen that had a sense of uplift or joy. I had to reassure them it wasn't always like that!"
As McGee herself ages, her perspective on the material continues to evolve, influenced both by ordinary life experiences and profound personal loss. The tragically early death of her director, Adam Brace, at age 43 in 2023 has particularly shaped her relationship with the work.
Before her Toronto run, Brace appeared in a dream. "We were on the top of a double-decker bus and he was giving me notes," McGee shares. "I looked at him and said, 'Adam, we've all been missing you so much, but you're right here.' I don't know if that is a mystical thing or a sense that he lives in this piece of work, but I found it very comforting."
"Adam and I talked a lot about art consoling people and maybe that's one of the big functions of this show," she continues. "You come into this room and it's, 'Hey, you're going to die and I'm going to die!'"
Age Is a Feeling continues its journey at Soho Theatre Walthamstow in London from March 5th through 7th, offering audiences worldwide a raw, moving exploration of what it means to grow older in an unpredictable world.
