An ode to motherhood sees creator Reznek shine
STRADDLING a life from birth to its conclusion is quite something with the title underlining the fleeting flight of what we once had, watch as others grab on to that time and stand by as yet others slip away.
The Magnet Theatre team have an extraordinary way of telling stories that stealthily takes hold of your emotions in unexpected ways, while dealing with a passage of time we all experience – even if in different ways.
It’s the way Reznek deals with ageing, from every possible stage as the mother screams in desperation to hold on to “my girl, my daughter, my young, my youth”.
Daughters, mothers and grandmothers are all represented in different stages as she tells the story, while playing with the Demeter-Persephone story to reach into her and our lives. It doesn’t matter whether you know the details or not because there are many different access points to the story which encourages entry.
In fact, simply exploring the storytelling and the storyteller, the way she changes the mood, draws in her audience, changes from daughter to grandmother using movement, expression and voice is simply mesmerising.
It’s the magic of theatre when someone finds a way of expressing themselves, actually has something to say and finds different ways to reach their audience. Reznek does all of this in a language all her own and that is what makes this such a unique experience.
Life’s processes which always seem so obvious have a way of unexpectedly creeping up on us as if they are something we know, but happen to others – until they become our own. It is all of that that comes to play as a mother loses a daughter while mourning her own youth, while also caring for an ageing mother, the place she is moving towards.
And once you’re there, it all comes as a surprise because the inevitable has happened. That’s part of the joy and the sorrow of the experience which is all out there and yet until we experience it, it hasn’t become our own.
With the baby boomers ageing, it has become quite a topic in movies and television and it is fascinating to watch and experience how different people explore and explain this thing we call “living”. What Reznek has done is draw on the cycles of women and the way our lives contain the whole spectrum always in constant motion.
Working with Fleishman, someone who knows and understands her, makes this such an exquisite affair with not a false note as she plays with text and context, takes a break while chatting to her audience, leaps in joy and washes away her pain as she finally reaches out to the child that remains in each one of us.
Whether you’re a mother, have a mother, are a daughter, have one or even as one of the wise elders, this is all about experiencing the pain and pleasure just being any and all of those brings.