“Women Who Shout at the Stars” a memorable work

May 08, 2014

Consummate Canadian actress Carolyn Hetherington is well known for her stage work in numerous theatres across the country and for her many memorable roles in television and film, but she does not consider herself a playwright.

“Women Who Shout at the Stars” is the only play she has penned to date and it is a memorable, honest and finely crafted accomplishment. The one-hour play was performed by Hetherington at the Bellrock Hall on May 3 and included an informal question & answer period by the 81-year-old actress after the show, in which she humbly asked for input from the audience.

The play is a very personal and powerful piece of work that pays tribute to the two most influential women in Hetherington's life, her mother Gwen and her nanny Edie. Hetherington plays all three characters in the play - herself and the two women, whose lives and characters are so very different, as they come together to help to inform her young self.

The play tells of the life and three loves of Gwen, Carolyn’s mother, one of whom dies tragically, leading Gwen to the brink of despair. However, Hetherington's loving nanny, Edie, who grew up in difficult times but whose outlook seems diametrically opposed to that of Gwen, gives the young Carolyn constant love and warmth that seem to keep her life on the rails.

The play, though complex, has a simple set: two chairs, one for Edie, one for Gwen, with the centre stage reserved for Carolyn. Hetherington moves effortlessly between the three spaces while transforming herself miraculously on a dime into the character that inhabits each. Despite the performance being, in Hetherington's words, “an active reading of a work in progress”, Hetherington delivered it full throttle and kept the audience enthralled throughout. She played the three roles with such seemingly effortless mastery that the script in her hand seemed to disappear.

Gwen, Carolyn's mother, is an addictive, fiery-tempered drama queen, who despite it all maintains a biting sense of humour, and it is she that gives the play much of its lift and bite. It is also Gwen's darkness plus her ability to soldier on despite it that give the play its dark and tragically comic side.

Nanny Edie is Gwen's polar opposite, an orphan raised in poverty who forgoes love and children to live a life of serving others. She is kind-hearted and as funny as Gwen, though in a much sunnier and optimistic way, and it appears that she and her love are what keep the young Carolyn afloat. Edie's charm and her good-hearted ways of looking at the world make the sun shine in an otherwise tragic and despairing environment.

While the plot leaps rapidly through space and time, and covers in-depth the lives of each woman, Hetherington moves in and out of each character seamlessly and her clever script enables the audience to keep up with her. She portrays each character with honesty, and with the careful and subtle craft of an experienced and eloquent actress. She has written each character with the wisdom that age often brings to the most painful and most beautiful parts of our lives.

The success of the play seems to lie in the fact that Hetherington herself has comes to terms with the complicated character of her mother Gwen, and has come to accept and love her with all of her flaws and foibles. Simultaneously Hetherington has brought to life Edie, the other and perhaps the true mother figure in her life.

A second performance of the play will take place at the Bellrock Hall on Saturday May 10 at 7:30pm and in lieu of an admission fee, guests are invited to make a free will offering at the door.