A German actress has been prompted to return to the stage through her work entertaining nursing home residents, writes Sara Keating

For Hedda Kaphengst, serendipity speaks to the fortunate coalescence of her circumstances and her dreams. Having abandoned her life as a struggling actor in Germany to work as a chef in a nursing home in Bray, she never imagined that her relationship with the residents would provide the creative spark to reignite her thwarted passion for the theatre.

Now, along with her theatre company, the happily monikered Serendipity Theatre Group, Kaphengst is about to make her professional theatre debut on the Irish stage in her own translation of Kirsten Specht's one-woman play, The Backside of the Bills. It tells the story of forgotten German writer Marieluise Fleisser, confidante and collaborator of Bertolt Brecht, whose life has been overshadowed by the achievements of her male contemporaries.

However, Serendipity Theatre Group is not an ordinary company, comprised of actors and directors creating original work. That is, of course, part of their artistic mission, but their biggest commitment is in fact to the work which inspired Kaphengst to start performing again - her work with the elderly in residential care.

"I trained as an actor in Germany," she explains, "but when I came here six years ago I started working in a nursing home, and if it was hard to break into a career as an actress in Germany, it was even harder here, without native English. But I wanted to do something with my skills at work, so I asked if I could bring in my guitar and practice my singing with the residents. They loved it. There were two other ladies that I worked with who had a drama background, so we decided to do a play, which was very popular."

News of the success of this in-house entertainment spread around local nursing home communities, and Kaphengst began to make frequent visits to different nursing homes. Soon, she found herself with a growing repertoire, a growing client base of 30 homes (20 of whom are facilitated by weekly or fortnightly gigs) and a growing company, which now comprises eight members, all of whom get involved in sessions on different levels, from the organisation of schedules to the performing of material.

As Kaphengst explains, the sessions are made up of "singing, music, storytelling, poetry, jokes, and dramatic excerpts. It is important to find the right material that interests the residents, and it is also important to get them involved - through dancing and singing or giving them rhythm instruments to play. The audience can be quite diverse - from people who would be quite mentally challenged by dementia to people who are very sharp - and you need to balance the material for both levels."

THE RESIDENTS' FAMILIARITY with the work is also an important element, Kaphengst says. "But while they do love the familiar songs the best, I always put in some German songs [ such as Kurt Weill cabaret numbers, which are especially popular], because it is important that they have a change, a challenge, as well. With some of the residents, I can even give them excerpts from the play we are rehearsing [ The Backside of the Bills], but I need to present it in a different way than [ I would] in the theatre, and they can be receptive to that. It is interesting for me too to perform dramatic pieces for them. It is a bit like a rehearsal, and I can see how an audience will react."

It is, however, the music sessions that are the most successful element of the programme. Kaphengst says that this is because "music is the last memory to go". Certainly the residents in Ailesbury Nursing Home in Sandymount seem to relish remembering old ballads and ballroom tunes. Some sit with eyes closed, lost in another time, as Kaphengst serenades them with a Sinatra number they might have danced to in their youth. Others join in, rousing the past with renditions of Molly Maloneand Que Sera Sera, whose lyrics seem a serious and poignant philosophical salve in this context - "what will be, will be" indeed.

Of course, there are always those who will buck against the romance of a life remembered, like the renegade resident who sits in the corner complaining, interjecting loudly with such barbs as "my cat could do better" and a series of screeching miaows to reinforce her point. A nurse affectionately tries to quieten her down, to encourage her gently to leave, but this dissenter is really having a good time, enjoying herself in spite of the protestations.

In fact, the rapport between the residents and the performers is palpable. Kaphengst exudes a youthful charm and exuberance that the residents warm to, while Justin Aylmer's repertoire of Spike Milligan epithets and Yeats excerpts, recited in a refined and resonant voice, elicits sighs of pleasure from the women in the audience. Josh Johnson on the piano provides musical support, indulging himself with a few jazzy solos which also go down a treat.

As Kaphengst explains, this rapport with the performers provides half of the enjoyment for the residents - and it provides half of the performers' enjoyment of their work too: "We build up relationships together with them and that is the beauty of it. It is important that it is not a variety of different people, but the same people working with them all the time. They look forward to you coming, and they enjoy it. And, for me, so do I. Coming from Germany, they are like my family now."

Kaphengst hopes that some of them will make it to the New Theatre to see her professional debut too, and a special Sunday afternoon matinee has been organised especially for the more mobile of her elderly friends to attend. And as the Ailesbury residents file out of the day room to say goodbye - asking Kaphengst how she's getting along with the house-moving - Kaphengst can be certain that they will be applauding her in spirit, anyway, as she steps out on to the stage.

The Backside of the Bills runs until Feb 16 at the New Theatre, Temple Bar