It’s not terrible. That’s the best I can muster.
Playwright and director Mieko Ouchi’s Burning Mom, which is based on her own mom’s experience, is about a 63-year-old Calgary woman named Dorothy, who heads off to Burning Man with her adult son Kevin and his pal Hilary. It doesn’t take long to figure out that Dorothy’s goal is to release herself from her fixation on grief a year after her husband Eugene’s death, and regain a sense of control in her life.
Fortunately for Dorothy and, in a way, unfortunately for the audience, she meets nothing but support in her quest — from the security guard named Pravin, who helps her learn how to park the massive camper she’ll drive to Burning Man, to the passel of naked men who come to her aid when she tumbles from her bike on the playa.
You could say Dorothy’s antagonist is her self-doubt, but that self-doubt is never seriously challenged in her relationships or personal encounters so Burning Mom never provoked much of a response from me, emotionally or thematically. Dorothy’s journey is all about reassurance all the time, which makes it boring. Dorothy does encounter physical challenges — in a campground, she’s afraid of hitting trees with her camper; on the road, she needs to buy new tires for her vehicle — but, with the kindness of strangers, these problems are easily resolved and make little impact. A thing happens, then another thing happens.
The design of this production is a mixed bag with some significant successes. Set designer Patrick Rizzotti’s pristinely realistic rendering of Dorothy’s 26-foot-long camper occupies almost the entire width of the Arts Club’s Granville Island Stage, and the set enables a terrific coup de théâtre that I won’t give away. I also love the way video designer Kim Clegg shows the passing landscape in the camper’s windows when Dorothy and her gang are driving to Nevada. Individually, many of lighting designer John Webber’s choices are gorgeous, but my sense is that there are too many attention-grabbing cues overall. It’s as if, working with Webber, director Ouchi is aware of the flatness of writer Ouchi’s script and trying to compensate for it. And there are times when Ashley Au’s sound design is downright odd: the performance I attended began with inexplicable thumps.
I haven’t mentioned that this is a solo show. It is, which means actor Susinn McFarlen is carrying a huge amount of weight in an evening that runs two hours and fifteen minutes, including a 20-minute intermission. I’m a big fan of McFarlen’s work so, in this production, I was surprised to witness hiccups in her line delivery. They were always quick, she’s a pro, but they didn’t instill confidence. I don’t want to overstate this. McFarlen is a smart, salt-of-the-earth actor, with an engaging sense of humour and great warmth so, in the most important ways, her performance is undeniably successful.
But the play doesn’t have much to say. Grief is massively important. The agency, independence, and self-definition of older women are massively important. I’m not dismissing any of this. My point is that these themes deserve to be explored more thoroughly and more engagingly.
BURNING MOM Written and directed by Mieko Ouchi. An Arts Club Theatre production. On the Granville Island Stage until April 20. (Tickets and information)
PHOTO CREDIT: Susinn McFarlen as Dorothy, riding her Burning Man bike. (Costume by Kirsten McGhie. Photo by Moonrider Productions)
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