Mother and Child Reunion Tonight, the Toronto-based actor brings her one-woman show Mamakin to the Great Canadian Theatre Company, having just wrapped up seven performances of it at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre, where it ran (to enthusiastic critical reviews) as part of the alternative Walk on the Wild Side series. The show, created by Moore and directed by Mump and Smoot’s Michael Kennard, will play at the GCTC for five performances. If ever there were a homecoming, this is it. Not only is Moore, chosen by the Citizen in 1995 for its annual Young Talent feature, an Ottawa native. Not only did she train here, at Canterbury High School and in the University of Ottawa’s theatre department. Not only did she get her professional start here, beginning with TV series work on CJOH’s Denim Blues, doing improv comedy with the Komic Kazes and moving on to important stage roles at GCTC and the NAC Atelier. Not only that. There’s also the question of Mamakin itself. The show, an inventive exploration of mother-daughter ties, was born at the Manotick Fringe Festival, with bloodlines that are Ottawa to the core. Moore is in effect bringing it full circle, home to its emotional and inspirational source. “It’s quite autobiographical” admits Moore, daughter of Jane Moore, English teacher at Canterbury High School and coach of its championship improv acting team. “It’s autobiographical because I write about what I know. And ironically, I find that the more personal I make it, the more it relates to everybody.” Mamakin, which opens with one of the stage’s more arresting birth scenes, traces the evolution of the maternal-filial relationship- that fragile yet durable tie that binds, sometimes uncomfortably and often too closely. A large, pink, unwieldy umbilical cord wraps itself around the narrator Samantha (Moore), as she re-creates the process of growing up, but not away. Throughout the piece- and Sam’s life- the omnipresent voice of Mama can be heard encouraging, needling, chiding, loving and frequently infuriating her daughter as Sam evolves from childhood to an adulthood that is something less than independent, before finally breaking free. Moore’s mother, who has seen the show several times, will be on hand again for Mamakin’s homecoming. “Of course she’ll be there opening night” says Moore about her No1 fan, who has contributed to the show in more ways than the purely thematic. One of its four songs, the lullaby Good Night My Baby, was written by her at her daughter’s behest. “I just said to her: write it. She was quite nervous, but she did it. It’s very personal, of course, because it’s really about me. With all that warmth and emotion, Moore is particularly delighted to be coming home with Mamakin at this time of year. “It’s the perfect Christmas show, full of love and song and spirit.” Which, she says, will be pretty much the ambience in her mother’s west-end home this holiday season. Moore will be spending Christmas there, along with Significant Other Michael Kennard. Her brother and sister will be there, with assorted family members. Her grandmother and aunt from out of town will show up. “Toute la gang. It’s going to be a wonderful Christmas,” says Moore, who has never shaken the notion that Ottawa is and always will be home. Baseline, Maitland, Navaho Drive. “It’s the home of my heart. Every time I walk down the street, I have such fond memories.” Moore has maintained her Ottawa connections, even though she now lives in Toronto (working on such prestigious stages as Theatre Passe Muraille) and travels for work elsewhere in the country, like her acclaimed performances last spring in the Centaur production of Angels in America. Her Mamakin partner, Derek Carkner, who plays different background characters and provides the disembodied voice of Mama, has been a friend since childhood and a fellow alumnus of the Canterbury Arts Programme. Moore’s broad theatre training, which includes comedy and clown work, has stood her in good stead for a career that has so far ranged from the searingly serious (the lead in STC’s production of Oleanna) to the bittersweet and physical comedy of Mamakin. The show played the fringe circuit- Manotick, Toronto, Sudbury, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton- to enthusiastic reviews (“a true star-quality performance”, “pointed and poignant and filled with uncomfortable insights”). It has evolved since its debut, says Moore, who added lighting and costume design, acquired director Michael Kennard, and generally polished the product with rewriting and more music. Last summer, she took it back to Toronto in a pre-fringe setting and made “lotsa money”- a good thing, too, as the show is self-produced and has cost Moore a relative bundle. Not that she’s complaining. Producing your own work (and, incidentally, being your own business manager and publicist) is the way of the future in theatre, she says. And the rejection of various grant applications is not irrelevant, either. “It’s a wonderful lesson in autonomy”, she laughs. “But what’s great about producing myself is that it’s my choice. Mine. I’m doing what I want to do, and I’m doing it the way I want to do it.” Janice Kennedy |
