Now on stage at the Stratford Perth Museum, 4275 Huron Road, Stratford ON
VOICE CHOICE
“Bravura and masterclass performances by real-life mother and son Rosemary Dunsmore and Robert Gerow. Jaw-dropping and viscerally real. A brute and raw honesty.”
As Dunsmore and Gerow have adopted convincing-sounding Irish lilts in their voices, I assume the story takes place in Ireland. I will explore the reason for this assumption shortly.
It’s the morning of Máire’s (Rosemary Dunsmore) 67th birthday. In a nearly ten-fifteen-minute monologue at the top of the show, she sits in bed smoking a cigarette and appears to be enjoying it. Máire has spent the night with a much younger man, Martin (whom we have never met), in passionate lovemaking. She is also surprised at what happened but basking in the memory of what transpired the night before. Throughout this monologue, Máire also talks to Jesus.
When Máire’s son Mel (Robert Gerow) enters, the play’s tone changes focus and direction. He brings some startling information to his mother that may change Máire’s understanding of the world she knows now.
The Here for Now website describes the company as offering an off-Broadway experience for theatregoers. This experience focuses on the actors’ performances, but that’s not to say that other elements should be minimized. Director Brenda Bazinet makes suitable visual choices that soundly work in the playing space under the tent.
For example, Fiona Mongillo’s set design efficiently helps establish scenes. Upon entering, we see a rolled-up carpet and a tarp covering set pieces of chairs and what looks to be a kitchen pantry. A clever idea then followed. What I thought was a Murphy bed (which it is) also doubles as a kitchen table. Dhanish Qumar Chinniah’s Sound Design allows the audience to hear every word of Deidre Kinahan’s riveting script.
Brenda Bazinet elicits bravura performances from real-life mother and son. It is breathtaking to watch Dunsmore and Gerow delve deeply into their characters with a visceral and often brute rawness. My guest told me later that her eyes were getting dry, but she couldn’t blink because she was (in her words) ‘gob-smacked at what was unfolding in front of me.’
As a practicing Catholic, Deirdre Kinahan’s play becomes of utmost importance on a personal matter. As Mel begins to relay the truth about Martin to his mother, Máire begins looking towards Jesus to help her through. This is exactly what Catholics do in times of trial – we give to God the personal or emotional trial we are enduring to help us through. On a personal note, I understand entirely what Máire is doing. In the recent loss of my mother, I have had to give to God several times already my struggles for a while because I could not deal with them in the moment.
However, here’s where the play diverges from the Catholic personal experience of quiet prayer and turning to God. Máire’s practice of faith becomes alarmingly fanatical in her agitated confusion and questions about what has supposedly happened involving Martin. There are moments from Máire’s past which suggest that both she and her husband have beaten Mel.
Additionally, there are hints that Máire may have also endured brutal treatment from the Catholic Church, considering the Magdalene Laundries run by some orders in Ireland in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
If anything, ‘The Saviour’ does not become Catholic bashing, for which I am grateful to the playwright and director. I’m growing tired of hearing and reading about those who practice the Catholic/Christian faith being maligned, mocked or scorned for their beliefs.
The play does something else I hope HERE FOR NOW will address for future audiences.
It boldly opens the door for further discussion on some societal issues that must be discussed. For instance, two questions my guest and I talked about in the car on the way home:
a) Can one truly forgive another human for any atrocity committed, whether one practices a religious faith or not?
b) Who are we to impose our mores and values on what might be considered an atrocity if another person does not see it that way?
I hope a talkback is available during the run of ‘The Saviour.’ It would also be beneficial to ensure that a member of the Catholic clergy might be there to assist in gathering thoughts together.
Final Thoughts: I give ‘The Saviour’ a VOICE CHOICE because Dunsmore and Gerow remain believably in emotional synchronicity with each other.
It’s a production NOT TO BE MISSED.
Please go and see this.
Running time: approximately 80 minutes with no intermission.
‘The Saviour’ runs until August 16 on the grounds of the Stratford Perth Museum, 4275 Huron Road, Stratford, ON. For tickets, call the Box Office at (519) 272-HFNT (4368) or visit herefornowtheatre.com.
HERE FOR NOW presents the Canadian premiere of
‘THE SAVIOUR’ by Deirdre Kinahan
Director: Brenda Bazinet
Sound Designer: Dhanish Qumar Chinniah
Set Designer: Fiona Mongillo
Stage Manager: Sam Snyders
Performers: Rosemary Dunsmore, Robert Gerow
