Without much theatrics MetroStage delivers great theater
By Jeanne Theismann
November 24, 2005
The venue is
small, the play has only two characters and it does not rely on complex stage
or lighting devices. Even the dialog is simple and easily understood.
No, you won’t find any
extraordinary theatrical components at MetroStage’s
“For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again.” What you will find is extraordinary
theater.
Catherine Flye and Bruce
Holmes together deliver a powerful performance and completely engage the
audience in a first-person account of a loving and often comical relationship
between mother and son.
The intimate, 130-seat
theater near the Potomac River in the north end of
Cleverly written by
award-winning French Canadian playwright and novelist Michel Tremblay, the play
is an homage to the woman he credits as his artistic
and personal inspiration.
With humor and
tenderness, Tremblay shows us the subtle and touching relationship he shares
with his mother, throughout his childhood until her death when Tremblay was 21
years old.
We first meet Tremblay
as a 10-year-old, on the receiving end of one of his mother’s many comical
reprimands. “Words have always been her most effective weapon,” he tells us.
We are told that she is
“the everywoman that we all will recognize” — a delicate woman of
strength, courage and humility. For the next 90 minutes, we follow the two of
them over an 11-year span in a series of vignettes, as their relationship
matures into one of confidant and friend that ends far
too soon.
Flye delivers a brilliant performance as Tremblay’s
mother. Flye brings every word to life as she
mesmerizes the audience with her range of both comedic and dramatic
talents.
She captivates with her
display of the humor and sometimes exaggerated theatrics used by Tremblay’s
mother to teach him the lessons of life, and to make his world more colorful in
postwar
Absorbed
Holmes is the narrator
and delivers an equally compelling performance as the young Tremblay.
He displays perfect
timing as he draws the audience into the complex, sometimes frustrating but
always loving relationship between a mother and son. He seamlessly transitions
from role of narrator to son, and absorbs the audience in his banter as an
adolescent challenging his mother’s constant “because I said so” style of
reasoning.
In “For the Pleasure of
Seeing Her Again,” director John Vreeke delivers what
is promised in the opening lines of the play, namely that “tonight you will not
see any of the usual theatrics.”
Except for the final
scene — a surreal farewell to his dying mother — there are no set or costume
changes, which allows the audience to focus completely on the performances of Flye and Holmes.
Without the usual
theatrics, Vreeke allows us to fully appreciate this
compelling story of love, void of extraneous distractions.
“For the Pleasure of
Seeing Her Again” is theater at its best, inspiring laughter and tears through
a quiet and elegant tribute to a mother’s love.
“For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again” continues
through Nov. 27 at MetroStage,