THE OTHER PLACE by Sharr White (Canadian Stage). At Bluma Appel (27 Front East). To February 8. $30-$99. 416-366-7723. See Continuing. Rating: NNNN
Back in 2013, this intense psychological drama about a 50-something pharmaceutical scientist (Tamsin Kelsey) slipping into dementia was American playwright Sharr White‘s Broadway debut. In this Canadian premiere, Kelsey’s heart-wrenching portrayal of Juliana, the ambitious, tough-as-nails zoomer who begins to suffer the insidious symptoms of mental illness, takes White’s mind-bending script to the emotional max.
The plot skips back and forth over a period of 15 years, focusing on Juliana’s strained relationship with her well-to-do oncologist husband, Ian (Jim Mezon). While supportive, he becomes increasingly frustrated as her stubborn and snarky personality is clouded by hurtful bouts of forgetfulness and delusion. Their deep-seated problems appear to stem from their estranged daughter (Haley McGee), who ran away from home as a teenager, but White’s script contains surprises I won’t spoil here.
Despite the very serious subject matter, Kelsey makes Juliana quite funny, playing her pessimistic and narcissistic qualities just right to keep the dark and sad themes from being totally overwhelming.
Director Daniel Brooks nicely manages the show’s many changes in time and place, making them work as sudden jumps or smooth transitions thanks to well-coordinated mood-setting projections by designer Jamie Nesbitt. The combination of Judith Bowden‘s sleek, refined, minimalist set and Nesbitt’s surreal, single-colour projections creates a visual foil for Juliana’s transition into a less ordered, less reality-based frame of mind. Silhouette and shadow effects by lighting designer Michael Walton are subtle yet effective contributions to the fractured modernist design.
Kelsey’s performance is strengthened by both Mezon, with whom she has great combative chemistry, and McGee, who impresses as three supporting characters who each deal differently with Juliana’s increasingly erratic behaviour.
As baby boomers approach their later years, confronting and managing the onset of age-related mental illnesses will become an even more pressing issue – one that, as White points out here, many families are unprepared to deal with.
White’s play offers some hope that kindness, patience and understanding can temper an otherwise bleak prospect.
