Playwright: Steve Yockey
Director: Lori Raffel
Years of success, meticulous planning, and an eye for detail have in no way prepared Vivienne Avery for her mother’s slide into the grip of dementia. Initially hiding behind insomnia-fueled baking and a polite smile, stories about her mother leave Vivienne’s inner turmoil quietly laid bare in a juxtaposition of stories, theatrical gestures, and a childlike Alzheimer’s “creation myth.”
With empathy and a certain wry self-awareness, ... view more »
Playwright: Steve Yockey
Director: Lori Raffel
Years of success, meticulous planning, and an eye for detail have in no way prepared Vivienne Avery for her mother’s slide into the grip of dementia. Initially hiding behind insomnia-fueled baking and a polite smile, stories about her mother leave Vivienne’s inner turmoil quietly laid bare in a juxtaposition of stories, theatrical gestures, and a childlike Alzheimer’s “creation myth.”
With empathy and a certain wry self-awareness, Vivienne seems to perpetually measure the depth of her own inner resources as she struggles with the implications of her mother’s disease, now advanced enough that she needs to be moved from an assisted-living facility to a nursing home. That struggle will be familiar to plenty of baby boomers who are acting as caregivers for their elderly parents at a time when life expectancy has increased but many of those lives have been darkened by Alzheimer’s. “There’s this managerial groove that you have to get into, basically orchestrating everything,’’ Vivienne explains. “Somebody has to be in charge of this sinking ship. Because the ship is sinking.’’
View less
