Not Dead Enough, left, and Have I No Mouth
Mother and son delve into their own past in this uniquely personal show
Writers mining their families for dramatic material is not unusual but this show is uniquely personal. Feidlim Cannon and his mother Ann, together on stage, dredge up the past of their own lives in an exploration of memory, grief and how they were affected by the deaths of Feidlim’s father, who died in 2001, and of the youngest child in the family, who died as an infant.
Despite the delicacy of the subject, there’s a nice sprinkling of humour throughout. Also on stage is Erich Keller, the psychotherapist who became involved in the show as a consultant. His main contribution is to take the role of the dead father in dreams and to provide the symbol of release from anger.
The difficulty of trusting memory is immediately obvious. Things Feidlim claims to remember clearly are contradicted by his mother. Feidlim, who professes no belief in an after-life, seems more obsessed about the dead than his believing mother.
And the past is often relived in distorting dreams, especially since a report on his father’s death showed that he died through medical incompetence. The reality/dream sequences are occasionally confusing.
Along with the small objects that illuminate a life, are excerpts from an old TV show featuring their own garden and projected photos taken by the father – possibly showing his incompetence as a photographer or inadvertently leaving a symbol of his absence.
At a re-created Christmas dinner, cutouts of the two older boys sit at the table with their mother.
The show is absorbing but I found it oddly unmoving. Perhaps the passage of time since it was first produced some years ago has softened the emotional impact.
The one time I felt emotionally involved was when I feared that Keller, his head swathed in bandages, might damage his back as he carried Feidlim in his arms.
‘Nice sprinkling of humour – despite the delicacy of the subject’