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Culture Theatre

Review: How Black Mothers Say I Love You scores laughs and tears

HOW BLACK MOTHERS SAY I LOVE YOU by Trey Anthony (Trey Anthony Studios/Girls with Bow Ties). At Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst). Runs to May 15. $25-$35. 416-504-9971, factorytheatre.ca. See Continuing. Rating: NNN

In the 1950s and 60s, Canada began a program that allowed eligible black women from the Caribbean to move to Canada and work as domestics. Eventually, after a protracted fight led by domestic workers’ organization INTERCEDE (The International Coalition to End Domestics’ Exploitation), these women were allowed to bring their families to Canada.

Trey Anthony‘s How Black Mothers Say I Love You uses this as the starting point for the poignant tale of Daphne (Ordena Thompson), who left her two daughters in Jamaica for six years. At the start of the play, the two are grown up and the estranged elder, Claudette (Robinne Fanfair), who hasn’t seen her family for years, returns to Toronto from Montreal after learning of her mother’s illness.

The three women – including Claudette’s sister, Valerie (Allison Edwards-Crewe), married to a well-to-do white developer – all carry lots of emotional baggage, which is unpacked in the course of the play. The deeply religious Daphne resents Claudette’s lesbianism Claudette feels abandoned by her long-absent mother and also by Daphne’s preference for Cloe (Jewelle Blackman), a daughter born in Canada Valerie tries to keep the peace between her mother and sister.

Anthony (creator of the hit play ‘da Kink In My Hair, which became a popular TV show), who also directs, develops the domestic conflict with a good sense of rhythm, even if the writing occasionally has the feel of a TV drama. She’s especially adept at switching from the serious to the comic in a few lines, and the audience reacts audibly to certain revelations as well as to the play’s moments of intensity and humour.

The accomplished Thompson understands how to deliver both the tragedy and the wit, garnering lots of laughs as the gossipy, stubborn mother, complaining about Valerie’s cooking and refusing to die until she has the right hat to wear in her coffin.

Edwards-Crewe also understands the art of comic delivery, but Fanfair, as the most serious character, could use more nuance as Claudette, who harbours a deep pit of jealousy and insecurity.

The last section brings all the emotions to the surface, when Daphne explains why she left her young daughters in the Caribbean and Claudette grasps what being a mother means. That reconciliation is heartily felt by both characters and audience.

stage@nowtoronto.com

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