Tracy Leigh, left, as Kath and Shaun Carroll as Derek in Wiping My Mother’s Arse
Review: Wiping My Mother’s Arse by Iain Heggie. Produced by ArtAttack Theater Ensemble. Directed by Justin Lockwood. With Shaun Carroll, Catherine Kettrick, Enrique Olguin and Tracy Leigh.
Let’s just deal with the elephant in the room; yes, that title is really gross but Iain Heggie is being honest with his titling. Wiping My Mother’s Arse IS a play about just that, the unfortunate moment in your life when you have to deal with aging parents, family members and friends and all the problems associated with aging, including the unpleasantries of wiping your parent’s “arse”, (for those of you not addicted to BBC America and the films of Mike Leigh, “arse” is the British/Scottish/Irish colloquialism for “ass”). But, Mr Heggie’s play deals with a lot more issues than the problems of aging parents. “Mother’s Arse” also deals with the relationships between parent and child and between caregivers and those they care for. And, the play also explores sexuality and the dynamic between Out gay men and men struggling with their sexual identity. It’s a profound, timely, thoughtful, intelligently written piece of drama that frequently manages to be both very funny, as well as dramatically emotional and provocative. It’s an important piece of dramatic literature from an important, contemporary dramatist.
It’s also very much a regional, idiomatic piece of theater very specifically tied to a culture and a dialect. The themes of “Mother’s Arse” are universal, but the language is not, and that can be problematic for a theater company, especially an American one attempting a play specific to a non-American culture. Any decent American theater company should be able to competently stage a Southern, or Brooklyn, or Boston, or Fargo, or Hollywood set piece of theatre; they’re all part of the American fabric of experience and we all probably KNOW someone from the South, or Brooklyn, or Fargo and a decent theater company should be able to replicate their language, accent and cultural ticks. But, Scotland is NOT part of the United States and our main exposure to that language and culture is through “Scotty” on Star Trek and repeated viewings of Trainspotting, Braveheart and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. It’s a tough dialect to successfully pull off, and I’m sad to say that the actors in this production, for the most part, aren’t quite up to that challenge, with the strongest and most believable performance coming from Shaun Carroll’s sexually and emotionally confused Derek and noble but inconsistent attempts by Enrique Olguin’s caregiver Larry and Tracy Leigh as the girlfriend Kath. Catherine Kettrick as the elderly mother Andrene had some nice Scottish rhythms going but occasionally seemed to drift over to Irish and there was a moment or two when the accent seemed to be nonexistent. But the problems with the accent seemed to coincide with the strength of the performances…
By far the strongest performance in the play was given by Shaun Carroll as Derek, the middle aged misfit son of Andrene, whose issues with his sexuality, masculinity, and placement in society are the driving points of the play. On paper, to LBGT audiences, Derek is not a very sympathetic character. A closeted man who sponges off his ex-lover and abandons him, and purposefully distances himself from his aging, senile mother to avoid taking any responsibility for her, but meanwhile managing to pilfer money from her, who is also carrying on a relationship with a woman and deceiving her to his past history involving his gay relationships, is not the noblest of characters. But Mr Carroll’s strengths as a actor allow him to successfully portray all aspects of this complicated, wounded and emotionally fragile character and he is fully able to express all the nuances of Derek’s complicated personality. You start out this play wanting to loathe this character but by the end of the play you begin to feel sorry for him and his inability to find himself and to connect with the rest of society. And, this is entirely due to the strength of Mr Heggie’s writing and the excellent performance by Mr Carroll.
Despite a bit of physical miscasting, in my view, Tracy Leigh gives a great performance as Kath, Derek’s slightly trashy, slightly mercenary girlfriend with a heart of tarnished gold. I say physically miscast because Ms Leigh is a tall, buxom, very American (and according to the program, Texan) Amazonian cheerleader of a woman. She is very attractive, very healthy, and very American looking; that’s not to say Scottish women can’t be buxom, tall, and hearty but the casting rings a little false, in my eyes. But, Ms Leigh IS a very talented actress and does a great job with the shadings of her character, allowing Kath to be multi-layered and dimensional. Kath is a bit of a gold digger but she’s not a cruel one; she only wants to improve the quality of her life and be treated with a little dignity and respect. Ms Leigh is able to make Kath both believable and relatable, even when Kath has to be unlikeable to reach her goals. It’s a promising start to an actress who has only been acting in Seattle for a year. I want to see more of her.
As for Catherine Kettrick’s mother, Andrene and Enrique Olguin’s Larry, I think both performances suffer from a lack of nuance and shading; neither actor seems willing to play the unlikeable sides of their characters. Ms Kettrick’s Andrene is a little too sweet and vague; I currently know someone suffering from dementia and people coping with dementia and senility and Alzheimer’s are not universally placid and pleasing; they are also demanding and rude and unpleasant and unless they are in the end stages of dementia, they are also frequently very lucid and sharp, for brief moments. The text of this play clearly indicates that Andrene DOES have moments when she is very lucid and moments when she is bitchy and not very nice but Ms Kettrick, and the director, seem to pull back from playing any extremes of the character; it’s a bit one note…much like Enrique Olguin as Larry, the caregiver and ex-lover of Derek. Larry seems to be a nice guy in the beginning of the play, and the rightfully aggrieved dumped lover who deserves his right to feel bitter towards Derek, but Larry is also guilty of taking advantage of the sexually confused younger man and even more guilty of conning his senile charge, Andrene out of her life savings. But, Mr Olguin seems so intent on trying to perform the correct Scottish accent that the performance suffers. It’s a bit dull and fades in comparison to the performance by Shaun Carroll’s Derek; frankly the performance needs to be a bit bigger and gayer and a little more obviously mercenary. We need to see more shadings of this complicated character.
Staging wise, Justin Lockwood does an excellent job in placing his actors on a very challenging stage. The Artattack space is very small and the play is staged runway style with the action in the middle of the rectangular shaped space and the audience lined up on each side of the stage. It’s a bit like watching a tennis match for the spectator,but Mr Lockwood does a great job of keeping the movements on stage, realistic and believable. Also fine, was the simple but effective lighting design by Selby who also functioned as the sound designer and stage manager. (Artattack is a small, but talented group…)
Despite some performance issues, I enjoyed Wiping My Mother’s Arse, (and, yes, I’m aware of how nasty that sounds…happily/unhappily my own mother didn’t live long enough to suffer that indignity…)It’s a very strong piece of dramatic literature with good, sound direction and some compelling performances by a talented theater group with an eye/ear for smart theater pieces to stage. I’m anxious to see more of their work…and hoping they find better chairs for their audience…my own “arse” was a bit sore after two hours in those seats…
Wiping My Mother’s Arse continues at Artattack, 1715 East Olive Way, (just up the hill from Cafe Metropolitain) now through June 13.
-Michael Strangeways
About the Author: Michael Strangeways
