“A GRANDMOTHER’S BRAVE SPIRIT; A GRANDDAUGHTER’S BOLD VOICE”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad)

This one-woman show, written and performed by New Jersey-based Shawneen Rowe, first saw the light of day three years ago in New York. Using a poignant mixture of live action, video imagery, and projected family photos, Rowe tells the often heartbreaking story of an Italian-American upbringing focused around her Grandma Rosa: one of those great matriarchal figures who battle to hold homes and families together with graceful and righteous strength, whatever life throws at them.

Via the bold voice of her granddaughter, the tale of her grandmother’s relentlessly brave spirit is told in a series of vignettes recalling the tears and the laughter of life in a lively Italian household. In piecing together the life of a woman who survived abuse and the sudden disappearance of her father, we are drawn in to relish in the triumph of Rosa’s spirit as she passes her story down to her granddaughter.

Despite the perhaps sinister-sounding title, this is ultimately an uplifting story: the telling and re-telling of sometimes dark family secrets can drag them into the light to illuminate our histories and unite generations by confronting the mysterious past. The struggles of our ancestors can give shape and bring deeper understanding to our own lives.

Rowe is a seasoned actress and theatre-maker who looks the audience squarely in the eye and tells her story simply, with a single suitcase of props and costume to enable shifts between the roles of narrator, grandmother and daughter, as well as a houseful of male and female Italian relatives.

The only downside of the performance I saw was a ridiculously loud fan in the black box auditorium of the Jade Studio. The recent heatwaves have necessitated air conditioning of some sort in theatres, but this racket made some of the quieter moments in Rowe’s monologue inaudible. This show is well worth seeing, but keep your fingers crossed for cooler evenings, a little more projection from Ms Rowe, or a drop of oil for that fan.

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