Review: BLACKBERRY WINTER at the Kitchen Dog Theater

Our parents are the people who raised us. They taught us things, kept an eye on us, bathed us, changed our diapers, and most significantly, they provided us with an over abundance of memories that ultimately helped shape who we are as we age and grow. But, now bare with me for a moment, what if an underground mole could dig its way into your mind and rob you of those treasured memories? This is the crux of the creation myth for Alzheimer's disease developed by Vivienne Avery, the primary character in Steve Yockey's new play, Blackberry Winter, presented by the Kitchen Dog Theatre (KDT) as the first play in their eighteenth annual New Works Festival, in residence at the Undermain Theatre. A one-woman show is a rather difficult undertaking and KDT Artistic Company Member, Karen Parrish, undertook this project with an intensity that left the audience filled with emotion, laughter and tears, sometimes simultaneously.

Alzheimer's disease and it's related dementia, a tragedy for any family to endure, maintains the focus, the root, and the foundation of Blackberry Winter. This is a play about a woman wrestling with her aging mother's degenerative condition. Vivienne, a baker and a "proactive family care manager" as she puts it, has just received, or rather thinks she has just received, news from her mother's assisted living facility that it is time for her to move on to a nursing home. Vivienne's obvious perfectionism and fastidiousness clearly don't prepare her for the dementia that is to consume her mother and the ensuing loss of their shared memories. Her restless baking to the early morning hours, an artistic approach to make sense of her mother's condition, is unexpectedly replaced by the development of a creation myth, written in verse.

The set, designed by Scott Osborne, is framed with latticework, offering a home-style environment, to an otherwise surreal setting: pedestals scattered throughout the stage, each containing a single object, from the dreaded letter from her mother's assisted-living facility that Vivienne refuses to open, to a pair of scissors, a piggy bank, and a small dropper bottle of Iodine. Medium sized and unimposing screens dominate the center of the background, and are framed by the latticework. It's unclear where we are. Her home? Her subconscious? This dichotomy in realities intrigued me from the moment I walked into the theater, well before Ms. Parrish graced us with her presence on stage.

While this play is clearly a one-woman show, there, in reality, are two additional characters, The White Egret (Martha Harms) and the Gray Mole (Rhonda Boutté), who are actors in the creation myth created by Vivienne. Because Vivienne's interaction with these characters was so minimal, I stand by my assertion that this is a one-woman show with three short interludes to demonstrate her origin myth to the audience, a fourth potential character. In fact, Vivienne speaks directly to individuals in the audience; she even interacts with these characters. She responds to their laughter, makes eye contact, laughs with them, even breaks a clearly blocked cross to stage left in order to acknowledge an individual audience member's delayed reaction to one of her lines. Adding to the surrealism of the play, I never fully understood who the audience was supposed to be in this story. My interpretation is that we were witnessing the character interacting with her subconscious, floating in between memories of her mother and struggling to cope with the stress and pain of losing her to dementia.

Yockey clearly has a way with words. His command of language is impressive (almost too impressive for his primary character), but the script left a lot to be desired. As I said previously, one-person shows are difficult. Incredibly difficult. For everyone involved, particularly the playwright. With only one character to work with, Yockey is unable to create an exchange of ideas and thoughts, there is limited interaction between characters, and there is no dramatic conflict, the essence of each and every piece of theater. If dramatic conflict is driven by fundamentally opposing desires between two characters who have a stake in the outcome, then I saw no dramatic conflict. There is no conflict between entities. If we were supposed to be the other entity in the play, it was unclear to me what Vivienne wanted, aside from, perhaps, a sympathetic ear, and how our desires prevented her from attaining her desires.

The director of the play, Tina Parker, Co-Artistic Director of Kitchen Dog, clearly helped Ms. Parrish make some significant acting and staging choices. The directing is concise. Ms. Parrish spoke to all sections of the audience, and the dramatic beats in the writing are obviously respected and cunningly used, offering a strong emotional captivation.

At the end of the night, it was clear to me that Ms. Parrish held Blackberry Winter on its feet. She kept me engaged, interested, and wanting more. She gave a brilliant performance. She can make you laugh, cry and truly empathize with her character. The show runs through Sunday, June 26th at the Undermain Theatre. For tickets and information visit www.kitchendogtheater.org.

Photo courtesy of Kitchen Dog Theater

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