Family tensions boil over in Gleams production

Staged in the art gallery at Victoria Hall for three days last week, it was the North American premiere of a one-act work published in 1997 by Jon Fosse, a playwright considered pre-eminent in Norway who is gradually gaining recognition in the rest of the world.

With the production of this drama, Gleams Theatre is paying tribute to the 100th anniversary of the death of another Norwegian playwright, Henrik Ibsen, who is said to be the most frequently performed classical dramatist in the world after Shakespeare. Watching Fosse's work, Ibsen comes readily to mind.

Throughout Mother and Child, which is set in a Norwegian village, the characters strike poses reminiscent of Ibsen. Overflowing with angst, they speak to each other while staring motionlessly in opposite directions. This has an especially powerful impact when each actor faces a different side of a 'theatre in the round,' as is the case in Gleams Theatre's production.

Ira Sokolova, who plays the mother and is the Westmount company's founder, noted other similarities to Ibsen. "He (Fosse) doesn't use sophisticated words in his text," she said. "It's very everyday speech, but underneath everything is happening. And the complexity of this is connected especially with the female character."

According to Sokolova, the play is about choices. "She gets pregnant and then he left her," she said about the mother's dilemma. "She could stay in this little village there with its conservative way of living and take care of a child without a husband, or to try to build a career and make something of herself."

Another noticeable characteristic of Fosse's script is the repeated use of the word 'yes' by the two characters. Constantin Sokolov, the play's director and Ira's husband, attributes this to a peculiarity of the Norwegian language. "In his language this is a very tricky thing — that people are always saying one thing but meaning other things," he said.

Cast as the son, David Wheaton is a graduate of Dawson College's Dome Theatre program. At one point towards the play's conclusion, he draws out some of his character's innate frustration when he suggests it might be more appropriate to kill off the elderly instead of aborting unborn children.

"I think he just feels extremely rejected," he said, musing on the situation. "I think it bothers him more that she left him … Killing old people, I think, part of it is just him trying to attack her — partly in self-defence — to kind of get something from her about what happened. He's kind of tormenting her."