Theatre review: Lights illuminates the humour and heartbreak around holiday family dynamics
Strong acting team brings to life new play amid East Coast-intimate sets
Lights stars Susinn McFarlen and Adam Grant Warren as a mother and son forced to negotiate a new kind of relationship. Photo by Emily Cooper
Touchstone Theatre presents Lights at the Firehall Arts Centre from now until December 13.
ALTHOUGH IT MAY seem contrary to what holiday commercials tell us, Christmas can be kind of a bummer.
In fact, as a society, some of our favourite Christmas content is quite gloomy: the Charlie Brown Christmas special; Joni Mitchell’s classic holiday breakup ballad, River; and Emma Thompson’s entire storyline in Love, Actually spring to mind.
There is something about this time of year that really resonates with the introspective and melancholy spirit in all of us. Perhaps it’s a mix of the dreary greyness of the skies, winter’s icy-cold nights, and the general hype and pressure to make the season bright that make all of us, at one time or another around Christmas, feeling more morose than jolly.
And, if we’re honest with ourselves, nothing can exacerbate those holiday blues quite like family can.
Lights, written by Adam Grant Warren as part of Touchstone Theatre’s Flying Start program, explores the complicated dynamics of Christmas spent with family when life feels anything but merry. It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Warren has found ways to weave moments of levity throughout the piece as well: inside jokes, laughter, that special kind of familial teasing only found on the East Coast, and a good dose of Christmas cheer.
Opening Touchstone’s 2021-22 season after being postponed three times thanks to the pandemic, Lights follows the story of Evan (played by Warren), a schoolteacher who uses a wheelchair and is visiting his headstrong yet loving mother Nancy (Susinn McFarlen) for Christmas in his childhood home in Newfoundland.
The—mostly—innocent topics between mom and son come up, of course: work, the weather, “When can I expect grandkids?”. The harmless Christmas squabbles come up, too: fighting over making the tree stand up straight, bickering over the placement of homemade ornaments. But underneath it all lie the subjects that are hardest to talk about and yet must be acknowledged: Evan’s long time spent away from home and Nancy’s recent diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Amid getting the house decorated for Christmas Day and the arrival of Evan’s wife (played by Leslie Dos Remedios), Nancy and Evan attempt to patch up a deteriorating bond—though it’s not without a row or two. Both are stubborn, sarcastic with each other, and unwilling to hear the other one out.
The meticulously detailed set creates an atmosphere of intimacy, with weathered holiday ornaments, homemade quilts, old family photos, and—true to an East Coast Christmas—a bowl of mandarin oranges placed on the dining room table. The house, adorned in memories from holidays past, can’t help but raise the question: how many more Christmases do the pair have left to make memories?
The stakes are high, and the emotions are running hot—but in setting the play around the holiday season, Warren’s main themes of love and hope come through. If the show didn’t include these key ideas, along with humour and warmth, Lights would lose its heart.
McFarlen shines in her role as Nancy. Both maternal and bitter, hot-tempered and yet kind; McFarlen’s portrayal is fully fleshed out. Her charming Newfoundland accent adds a homey appeal to her feisty, at-times hostile, spirit. Each time she becomes more aggravated when confronted with the idea of needing to ask for help, she’s both infuriating and deeply relatable.
Warren, too, has delved deeply into his character. At times, his Evan is childish, acting embarrassed and sulky in reaction to his mom teasing him. Other times he is an entirely grown man: stern, obstinate yet reasonable. Evan is someone who feels he must parent his own parent, and yet spending the holiday in his childhood home, he’s also a small boy hoping for a merry Christmas with his mom. Warren balances both sides of the character expertly.
Warren’s clever scriptwriting makes for a captivating piece of theatre for the entire 90 minutes of running time. It is a humorous, heartbreaking, and altogether touching piece of theatre that satisfies the need to indulge in those wintertime blues while not ever letting you pity the characters.
Related Articles
