'Memory House' at Trinity Rep

As Memory House opens, we meet Katia (Susannah Flood), a young woman, who is a high-school senior.  Katia is ruminating on her college entrance essay, which has to be postmarked by midnight tonight, New Years Eve.   In the essay she is submitting (to one of the good schools) Katia has been asked to create a 'Memory House'.  A Memory House, we learn, is a structured method of explaining the memories that shape your personality.  

Originally born in Russia, Katia was adopted from an orphanage, after the age of cognizance.  The essay has triggered and identity crisis. With a daughter that is going off to college, a failed marriage and a long-past career in dance, her mother, Maggie, (Anne Scurria) is on familiar territory.

Flood, in her second Trinity production, convincingly captures Katia's age-appropriate angst.  Her first Trinity role was in Our Town, which was directed by Brian McEleney.  She has since graduated from the Brown / Trinity Consortium and has made the transition from student actor to professional actor. Parallels, real or imagined, between Scurria and her former student, as mother and daughter are easy to draw.

Anne Scurria plays Maggie, her mother.  Maggie is busy distracting herself from yet another melancholy holiday by baking her first blueberry pie, while cajoling her daughter to finish her essay. Tolan captures a defining moment in their relationship, a shift in the balance of the mother-daughter dynamic.  Scurria's interplay with Flood is wholly natural and completely convincing.

The writing is tight, with a dry wit that derives its humor in its familiarity.  It is easy to see parts of oneself reflected in both mother and daughter.

Memory House is a beautifully written play, artfully acted. Beyond that, the story has all of the ingredients to be one hell of a screenplay.

Memory House runs at Trinity Rep through January 6, 2008. Performances are Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m., and at 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays with selected Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 2p.m.

Ticket prices range from $20-$60 and are on sale at the Trinity Rep box office, 201 Washington Street, Providence, RI; by phone at (401) 351-4242; and online at www.trinityrep.com

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