Kate’s Score” 3 Mothers’ Day lunches
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young woman in search of identity must examine her relationship with her mother. And mothers must spend their whole parenthood trying to find the line between being supportive and encouraging as opposed to imposing demanding expectations.
The dichotomy is exacerbated by societal expectations that these relationships live up to some saccharine Hallmark expression of love and friendship. The truth is, like all relationships, the mother-daughter relationship is fraught; more so because of the critical role mothers play in the physical and emotional growth of their daughters. And this is the subject of Sally Alrich-Smythe’s Homesick, the second offering in the FreshworksFemme at the Old 505. Samantha (Eliza Scott) returns home from a failed attempt at a music school in NYC, having found herself a very small fish in a large pond that is the world. Her grandmother (Lyn Pierse) has moved into her bedroom, her ex-boyfriend (a scene-stealing Alex Stylianou) has outed himself and her mother (Deborah Galanos) is as loving and hopeful as ever.
As a first play script, Alrich-Smythe’s work shows wonderful promise. The characters are lovingly drawn, and the journey is kept sufficiently tantalising to engage us. Moments of humour are embedded in both the dialogue and characterisation and Claudia Osborne’s direction makes the most of every possibility. The author’s decision to use home videos to underscore the story and its themes has been honoured by both the director and the vision team of Lucca Barone-Peters and Suzie Henderson.
Projecting all these images is not as challenging a proposition theatrically as it once was and so the decision to run with a poorly realised naturalistic set sits at odds with the rest of the production values. Budget is always a consideration by companies large and small, so careful choices have to be made with design to ensure it sits cohesively with other production values. Sometimes less is more.
Keep a look out for the author’s future work.
Kate Stratford – Theatre Now
