Live and in person at Here for Now Theatre, Stratford Perth Museum, Stratford, Ont. Playing until Aug. 16, 2024.
Written by Deirdre Kinahan
Directed by Brenda Bazinet
Set by Fiona Mongillo
Sound by Dhanish Qumar Chinniah
Cast: Rosemary Dunsmore
Robert Gerow
Devastating, compelling, beautifully written and wonderfully acted and directed.
The Story. From the programme notes: “There’s a new man in Máire’s life. But some people aren’t happy. On the morning of her 67th birthday, Máire sits up in bed enjoying a cigarette. There is a man downstairs. She is blooming.”
The man downstairs is Martin. He’s young enough to be Máire’s son. She met him at Church. He’s a devout young man. Máire and Martin hit it off. He begins doing odd jobs for her at her home: fixing things, cutting the grass. They developed a close rapport and they went to bed together on her birthday. Máire’s son Mel arrives to tell her that he’s done some checking and Martin is not who he says he is.
The Production. Fiona Mongillo’s set is carefully assembled by a young man played by Robert Gerow. We aren’t sure who he is at the moment, but he is almost reverential in his putting the set pieces together around the space. There is a murphy bed that is brought down from the wall, a table, a ‘cupboard’ of sorts, and other aspects of Máire’s bedroom are established.
Máire (Rosemary Dunsmore) sits up in bed, reaching for a cigarette (that was started by the young man assembling the set). She is smiling broadly at the revery of her night of passion with Martin. He has awakened feelings in her that she never thought possible. One could almost feel the tingle of sexual satisfaction on the skin of Máire’ because of the buoyant way that Rosemary Dunsmore plays her. Máire’ revels in the memory of the sex with Martin, the night before. One feels like a voyeur observing her luxuriating in the memory. Rosemary Dunsmore’s performance here is intoxicating.
But from such euphoria comes the memories of times gone by that were not so happy. Máire was married to Colm for years, happily at the beginning. He was a caring husband, at the beginning. They had children together. He died about a year before and Máire was lost, searching for meaning. We assume she found solace in the Church and in Jesus, whom she always talked to. And before that there were the truly dark days.
When Máire was about nine years old her father got a job in England. (The play takes place in Ireland). Her father could not take her with him so he gave her to the Catholic Church to take care of her and that meant putting her to work in one of the laundries. If one knows what that is, one sucks air at the horror that little kid must have endured.
The Catholic Church ran what were called “The Magdalene Laundries,” places where pregnant unmarried women were dumped by their families, boyfriends etc. because of the embarrassment of being in the family way. The women were put to work doing the laundry using abrasive (lye soap) and no rubber gloves. When the women came to term their babies were taken away from them and put up for adoption. They never saw them again. And because of the stigma they didn’t seem to leave the laundry, except in a few cases, Máire being one of them.
Máire describes it as “that place without mercy.” The nuns were abusive and cruel. It seemed to be a place without forgiveness. Rosemary Dunsmore’s performance went from the glow of sexual release to the horrible memories of the laundries. Her face was contorted because of the debilitating memories of what she endured as a kid and for years. Rosemary Dunsmore took you delicately to the edge of your seat and held you there, squeezing your heart for so many reasons, with this nuanced, gripping, shattering performance.
We never see Martin. We see Mel, played by Robert Gerow. Mel is Máire’s son. He is in a happy gay marriage, something Máire cannot quite understand in this modern Ireland. He wants the best for his mother, but he is frustrated because of Máire’s reluctance to believe him about Martin. Of course, Máire does not want to know the truth. Martin has given her some rare pleasure and does not want to believe he is somebody other than who he says he is.
Robert Gerow as Mel is caring, determined and urgent in his need to convince Máire that Martin is not who he says he is. Robert Gerow proves very capable of rising to the occasion of playing with Rosemary Dunsmore. He’s an actor to watch.
Brenda Bazinet has directed The Saviour withattention to the details of the story, with creativity, sensitivity and without a shred of sentimentality. She is not afraid of bringing out all the brutality of the story with simplicity and understatement. The result is resounding.
Comment. Deirdre Kinahan is one of Ireland’s major contemporary playwrights. She writes about issues that affect modern Ireland as well as the issues that have clouded its past. She is a masterful, poetic writer, with a way with a phrase that just dazzles. All of that is clear in The Saviour.
Here for Now Theatre presents:
Playing until Aug. 16, 2024.
Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes (no intermission)