Arts & Culture
Kevin McNulty and Marci T. House in Gateway Theatre play You Will Remember Me.
Photo by Tim Matheson
Time + Tragedy = Humour
Published 11:57 PDT, Wed May 3, 2017
The
evening started with embarrassment because the paucity of volunteers meant we
sat in the wrong seats. We missed the usual friendly retinue of Richmond
retirees manning the stairs and entrances.
Once everyone was
settled in the correct seats, things went swimmingly. This kerfuffle perhaps
gave us more compassion for a man living with dementia in a world that has
become far too confusing for him.
Tragedy plus time
is humour, they say, and when the topic is dementia that can be true, but there
are few laughs when you’re in the thick of it.
Mounted by the Ruby
Slippers troop—with Gateway Theatre—this production of “You Will Remember Me”
written by Francois Archambault and translated by Bobby Theodore shows the
reality that it’s a whole family who lives with dementia when one person’s
memory starts to go.
While it was
difficult to hear the dialogue for the first few minutes of the play when the
characters spoke cross stage to each other, that soon resolved and everything
was clear and absorbing.
The emotions were
clear too because of the quality of the acting under Diane Brown’s direction.
Kevin McNulty as
Edouard, the retired philandering university professor who is bewildered by the
world, repeatedly claims he has a very good memory as dementia alters all the
lives in the story.
As his wife,
Madeleine, Patti Allan sharply portrays the love, frustration and utter fatigue
of caring for her husband.
Marci T. House as
Isabelle, the adult daughter trying to forge a career and life, copes with the
imposition of her father’s presence in her life as well as possible.
It is an imperfect
arrangement when mom drops off dad, permanently, with her daughter. In the end,
it’s the daughter’s partner and eventually his teenaged daughter, wonderfully
played by Sereana Malani, who bonds and cares for the professor as his
sentience fades.
They learn to stop
re-orienting the professor, instead working with the images and reality he
knows.
The set, the sound
scape and the direction all worked together to make this a strong production.
The shame is that it will not run longer so more Richmondites can see it. When
we asked about enticing a younger audience, the student discount price of $29
per ticket still leaves it too costly—being three hours’ wages—to hope for a
younger demographic when they can buy a coupon for movie admissions, sodas and
popcorn for two at the same cost.
So, as we learned that everyone has to cope, from the person losing their cognitive functions to the spouse, the daughter and the people in their lives, the audience laughed but there were also many knowing nods. A solid evening of pathos and humour.
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