CHANGES IN A LANDSCAPE

One of the bonuses of youth is that it has not accumulated enough decisions to regret. But, as age creeps in, future possibilities of regret become sparser, and decisions more urgent. At the age of forty, Steve Verity, part-time painter and part-time tutor in arts and crafts - slightly balding, beer-paunch-ridden and generally unsatisfied with his lot, needs to re-invigorate his perspective on life. To rub salt in his wounds, he has just been given marching orders from his comfortable cottage home by his 'other half' of four years standing. It is fair to say that it is time for a thorough self-re-assessment. Notwithstanding strong support around him, which includes, ironically, his estranged partner, Rebecca, as well as his long-term friend, colleague and fellow-artist, the larger-than-life Dai (not to discount new love interests), Steve has to re-discover his true bearings. It becomes clear that he has new paths to take and different directions to choose - but will his choices be the appropriate ones? It seems as though the material surroundings that bear down on Steve are as much part of his discontent as any of his existential conundrums. In style, Changes in a Landscape plays upon the kitchen-sink-drama rawness of earlier, important 20th century doom-mongering novels, but adds an element of hope as it tackles the issues of self-identity and place in a subtle and absorbing way. What is most poignant, even frightening, however, is that no matter how irritating Steve's low self-esteem and inability to act is, and how much you would like to give him a kick up his Prufrockian back-side, there are glimmers of him in all of us.