Like a prose poem, it’s utterly absorbing
Memoir of mother is turned into a beautiful one-woman drama
On A House Like A Fire Running Online
May 21-25
★★★★☆
After her mother Margaret died, Michelle Read, having sorted through photographs and various memorabilia left in the house, felt she should organise the collected items and her own memories into a memoir about her mother. The result is a beautiful one-woman drama presentation that’s a reflection on their two lives based on snatches of memory from early childhood through to adulthood. It’s a slow burner, but done with great feeling, affection and atmosphere, told without even a hint of sentimentality, slowly building a picture of a woman from a poor background, with minimum education, who created a world for herself and her family from
‘What emerges strongly is the bond between mother and daughter’
‘Michelle Read tells it all in a muted and delicately nuanced form’
the most common items found in any house, but who emerges as a formidable personality, able to make her own decisions about life.
The work was commissioned and presented by Age And Opportunities Bealtaine Festival 2021, in conjunction with Droichead Arts Centre, and was filmed in Smock Alley Theatre.
It opens with a projected map of south-east England showing a group of towns from Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth, setting the scene for where her mother lived. Michelle, on her knees in semidarkness, is engaged with objects laid out on the floor.
The backing curtain initially looks almost like a wood, but everything falls into place as Michelle walks slowly round and begins evoking scenes of childhood. There are brief memories of long empty beaches, of sitting on the sand, swimming in the sea and descriptions of the house with its open doors that show the way through the whole house. But it’s not just a meaningless list from the past.
Many of the images are repeated, subtly adding details, slowly building a lifetime of experience and of domestic objects that have lodged indelibly into the daughter’s mind, from the ritual of the Friday night bath, the smells and atmosphere of the house, her mother’s habits, images of her cycling with her two children to the coast and her life with her husband before and after marriage.
What emerges strongly is the bond between mother and daughter, understated but almost tangible.
It comes almost as a surprise to Michelle, aged five, that her mother actually has her own name. Margaret is the soul of the house, guardian of the money, a hoarder of anything that might be useful at some stage, whose philosophy was never to get into debt and who believed in fate but who clearly had her own sense of purpose, and the ability to do what she wanted when it suited her.
More than anything it’s the portrait of a woman who made the most of what they had, and of recreations that didn’t need fancy expensive equipment.
This could all seem very mundane, but Michelle Read tells it all in a muted and delicately nuanced form, almost like a prose poem, that’s utterly absorbing, leading up to an ending that’s dramatic, moving, and told with great skill and sensitivity, as the early repetitions begin to make sense in the context of her mother’s whole life.
The subdued lighting and the accompanying music by Brian Keegan are central to the creation of a very atmospheric performance. The live version of the show will tour to venues nationwide for Bealtaine 2022.
Streaming tickets cost €10 (plus €1 fees). Visit www.bealtaine.ie.
■ Margaret Read is hosting an exhibition of memory objects in conjunction with the show, where audiences can upload images of items that hold memories of loved ones. When you buy a ticket for the show, Michelle will send you one of her own Memory Objects: something you can make yourself. Audiences will be invited to share the experience by adding photos of their memory objects to the online exhibition after the show.