Mom’ s the word is truth and hilarity rolled into one
Take a moment to appreciate every little good thing that your mother has ever done for you in your life — and then prepare to laugh uproariously as you hear it all onstage from her perspective.
Mom’s the Word: Nest ½ Empty is a fun and funny “based on a true story” take on the middleaged-woman experience from the unique viewpoints of the five writers who make up the team. The content of the show — from the heartfelt to the hilarious — comes from the real-life experiences of that creative team.
Mostly, anyways. The surreal and hilarious musical moments as the performers parodied pop songs with parental-inspired lyrics (The Baha Men-inspired “Who takes the trash out?” was particularly well done) or took part in a ridiculous and sexualized pool noodle ballet were probably more loosely interpreted than other parts of the show in Friday night’s performance at Persephone Theatre.
The play is, to put it simply, fastpaced. The first act opens with a barrage of one-liners fired off with reckless abandon — and unerring accuracy, based on the laughs from the audience.
But weaving through all of the lightning-fast and funny snapshots were through-lines from each performer that touched on more serious aspects of their lives while still maintaining some of that humorous edge only available through a retrospective lens.
Jill Daum’s continuing thread about dealing with a spouse diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s is especially poignant and powerful. As she described keeping the secret of her husband’s diagnosis, it silenced the audience. Which only made it that much better when she revealed the somewhat raunchy shirts she printed for his last concert near the end of the play.
Let’s take a moment to really appreciate how clever this show is. Turning autobiographical content into comedy is not easy. And making that comedy fit in with four other stories? This is what powerful and honest theatre is supposed to look like.
And there are some moments that really stick out — like Alison Kelly describing sneaking into her son’s house and pruning all the “little green shrubs” he and his roommates were growing as a nice favour to him, or Barbara Pollard having to chase her grandson around the pool locker-room while naked.
When a show is so quick-witted, sometimes things can get left in the dust. Whether it be Daum’s stories about her husband, or Pollard discussing her divorced life, the scene would rapidly shift away into comedy before the audience really gets the time to digest what’s going on.
And the show is definitely (and somewhat obviously, given the title) targeted toward mothers. The humour was mostly universal, but the target audience was clearly women who shared some of those experiences.
Outside of those pacing issues, the show is full of great decisions. And the performers were clearly enjoying themselves, occasionally breaking the fourth wall and clearly smiling or laughing at each other.
And in the end, if these mothers can laugh about their stories, you should too.
Think of it as just one more thing that your mom has done for you.
Mom’s the Word runs until Oct. 3 at Persephone Theatre.