Blackberry Winter
Blackberry Winter
By Steve Yockey
Directed by Michael Dove
Starring Suzanne O’Donnell
Orlando Shakespeare Theatre
Orlando, FL</strong>
There are many ways to die, not all of which end up with a dead body. Vivienne (O’Donnell) witnesses the worst way; her mom in in assisted living and about to upgrade to full time nursing care. Alzheimer’s steals her soul, it snuck in one day and turned mom from a happy, funny lady to a scared rabbit incapable of any sort of useful decision. Mom is so lost, even her name is now missing it’s a tough gig here for both the actress and the daughter; O’Donnell is on stage nearly the entire time. She teaches us how to bake, how to proactively care for her mother in a heartless system, and how to save for the future using a creative swearing bank. In order to cope, she creates an incomplete creation myth of a White Egret (Mindy Anders) and a Grey Mole (Kody Grassett). Egret doesn’t want anyone to lose their happy memories. She volunteers to save the pleasant memories of all the forest animals in a wooden box safely buried down deep. Unbeknownst to her, Mole discovers the box, chews into it, and unintentionally destroys all the happiness in the forest just as those tricky Tau proteins eat away those delicious motherly memory of making a coconut cake.
While this is not a happy or easy piece, it’s a show that packs an emotional wallop delivered thought the simple path of “we’ve all known someone like that…” O’Donnell rises and falls on the rough seas of her mother’s slide; she’s exhausted on stage and off by the end of the night. Offsetting the harsh reality of her journey we have the forest animal to symbolize the route; somehow it’s easier to swallow bad news once it’s anthropomorphized into a soft fairy tale acceptability. The stage is simple; projections put us in the forest and underground and back in the living room of frustration. Thirteen unlucky small tables with individual props act as mile stones for the story. They shadow the idea that lucky ones go quickly in to that dark night while the unlucky ones try to remember their address. Death is tragic but quick; this exit is slow and worse than tragic.
For more information on Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, visit http://www.orlandoshakes.org
