A straight-talking, no-nonsense cockney woman, a former scullery maid turned nanny. A vivacious, suicidal socialite mother who loves gin and the works of Dorothy Parker. A sensitive and creative young woman, raised, influenced and loved by both of these women.
Women Who Shout at the Stars, written and performed by Carolyn Hetherington, and directed by Kathryn MacKay, with dramaturgy by Judith Thompson, is a journey through the lives and loves of three women, intersecting and weaving together across time and an ocean, played out on the Theatre Passe Muraille main stage as part of SummerWorks.
Told through monologue, anecdote and correspondence, Hetherington’s three real-life characters each shift from first-person to second-person narrative, morphing into each other, at times interacting in dialogue. The stage, with its two arm chairs and side tables, a red silk jacket hanging between them upstage, separate the two worlds of mother Gwen and nanny Edie, with Hetherington crossing between them – and as them – and into her younger self. The atmosphere is intimate, and the audience is taken into the confidences of each woman as thoughts, feelings and secrets are revealed. You feel like you’re sitting across from each of them, sharing a cup of tea or a glass of gin as each reminisces aloud. Now in her early 80s, Hetherington is remarkable in this performance, with its range of emotion and storytelling – not to mention stamina.
These three women have a lot of story to tell – and I wonder how a pared down version would hone the focus of the storytelling. Still, Women Who Shout at the Stars is a bittersweet, sharp – at times archly funny – memoir.
The show runs at the TPM main space until Sun, Aug 17 – check here for exact dates/times.
life with more cowbell 