Bonnie Snyder and Kathi Chaplar (Photo by Doug Engalla)
Reviewed by Martín Hernández
The Group Rep
Through September 15
RECOMMENDED
When a stroke triggers a plaintive lullaby in the brain of an elderly woman, her adult children quarrel over how to deal with her condition. She also begins having visual hallucinations, revealing harrowing childhood memories she has long forgotten – or suppressed.
Mourning Song, playwright Brent Beerman’s domestic drama capably directed by Mareli Mitchel-Shields, touches on various themes — fear of aging, the immigrant experience, intergenerational trauma — and elicits a flawed but touching and witty domestic tale.
The play opens on a set festooned in white filmy curtains and cushioned stools, with Dr. Ritter (Lloyd Pedersen, double cast with Beerman) lecturing on a case study of a condition he calls “musical epilepsy.” This refers to a condition in which a person hears music intermittently “playing” in their head following a stroke. Ritter’s subject is Brigid (Bonnie Snyder), a 70ish retired teacher and widow living in present-day Los Angeles, who has no memory of her early childhood. This ambiguity has filtered into her family life, as her older child Marie (Amy Earhart) and son Ben (Paul Anthony Kelly, double cast with Alex Scyocurka) have a fraught relationship with each other as well as with their mom, evidenced by their woeful communication skills.
While Brigid is still independent, Marie pops in to assist as needed and to make sure Brigid takes her meds, puts on her hearing aids, and eats. She resents Ben for not visiting or calling their mom more often and for being Brigid’s favorite since he is a teacher, a profession Marie despises. Despite their decades-long rift, when Brigid’s condition deteriorates, Marie and Ben put away their differences to help their “mommy,” — though Ben focuses on retrieving memories of Brigid that Marie feels are better off left buried. Even Ben’s drama teacher experience comes in handy after they — surprisingly —learn of Brigid’s Irish background (After all, he has taught Beckett!).
Snyder is charming as the frazzled Brigid, especially in flashbacks where she’s seen as a precocious four-year-old. There are also tender and harsh moments with a hallucinating Brigid and her own stout mother (Kathi Chaplar), dubbed Mamai, whose hardships left a stamp of which the adult Brigid is unaware. Earhart and Kelly are believable as bickering siblings and ambivalent children. (Pedersen was tentative at first, possibly due to a late cast change, but acquitted himself well as the play progressed.) The group scenes, with Ben, Marie, and Dr. Ritter improvising for a confused Brigid, are both comic and heartfelt.
Augmenting the dream-like sequences are the set (Mitchel-Shields and Lee Redmond) and the sound design (John Harvey and Mikaela Padilla). And despite some holes in the plot — for example, what took her kids this long to take interest in Brigid’s past? – and a certain predictability, Beerman weaves a comic and touching story that is a lesson for those with aging parents – and those who are themselves aging.
Lonny Chapman Theater, 10900 Burbank Blvd., N. Hollywood.; Thurs. and Sun., 7 pm, Sat., 4 pm; through Sept. 15. www.thegrouprep.com. Running time two hours with a 15 minute intermission.
