LAST LISTS OF MY MAD MOTHER
By Julie Jensen
ROSE WAGNER PERFORMING ART CENTER, PYGMALION PRODUCTIONS
FEB/MARCH 2024​
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Directed by Morag Shepherd
Stage Managed by Jennie Pett
Set Design by Allen Smith
Lighting Design by Savannah Garrick
Photos by Robert Holman
Sound Design by Morag Shepherd and Troy Klee
Costume Design - Maddiey Howell Wilkins
Props by Barb Gandy
Performed by Ariana Farber, Tamara Howell, and Reb Fleming
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Last Lists of My Mad Mother is a hilarious, often touching look at the toll Alzheimer’s disease takes on a parent-child relationship. It magnificently reveals the humor within the tragedy, without taking away from the seriousness of the issue.” (The Record-Journal) Ma cares about ribbons and bows, intransitive verbs and keeping to her rigid schedule. Dot uses a wicked sense of humor to sort out the tangle of her mother’s mind. Together they struggle with Ma’s inevitable decline, while Sis phones in her advice from afar. In and out of the sinewy webs of Ma’s fleeting awareness, retracing paths they have traveled countless times, Ma and Dot drive toward understanding and arrive with some sense of surprise at the destination of comfort.
Directed by Morag Shepherd, this one-act gem is carried by the perfect chamber theater ensemble chemistry of actors Reb Fleming, Tamara Howell and Ariana Farber. Jensen’s 1998 play has a straightforward premise: Dot (Howell) has put her own life on hold to care for Ma (her mother, played by Fleming), whose memories are fading away faster than ever, as Alzheimer’s disease progresses. Meanwhile, Sis (Farber) stays at a distance, genuinely concerned yet also helpless about her mother’s condition but nevertheless feels compelled to advise Dot about other options for care.
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This is an exceptional production in every regard, framed beautifully by Allen Smith’s set design, with sheets of papers indicating Ma’s days as a teacher. As one moves across the set, the school worksheets become fragmented and disjointed at the other side, with progressively widened gaps. This is matched by black-and-white tile flooring that gives way to becoming fragmented and disjointed in the same manner.
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PYGmalion Theatre Company’s golden run in chamber theater excellence continues with exceptional production of Julie Jensen’s Last Lists of My Mad Mother (The Utah Review)
Director Morag Shepherd’s staging is simple yet eloquent in its efficiency. There are several phone conversations between the two sisters in which she allows the actors to see and even touch one another, thus blurring the lines between space and time, much like the frayed edges within their mother’s mind. She uses such conventions to efficiently move from one place to another, keeping the pace of a potentially slow script from dragging. As touching as Jensen’s script is, the plot is not very directional nor structured—it has a tendency to meander towards the inevitable end. Yet when we arrive there, I wasn’t quite sure we were at the end at all.
PYGMALION’S LAST LISTS OF MY MAD MOTHER IS FIRST RATE (Utah Theatre Bloggers)
