The Carousel

“I wanted to write a piece whose fundamental theme would be joy,” says Québécoise writer Jennifer Tremblay in our programme notes. In practice, this eerily ethereal play is far angrier, anchored in a heavy sadness. “I can feel the gate that shut on my mother is shutting on me!” yells actress Maureen Beattie, whose fiery virtuoso performance sees her playing four generations of the beleaguered Constance family. Driving to her dying mother’s bedside, a woman tries to find meaning within the long ago lived-in branches of her family tree.

The Carousel—the title of which is a metaphor for anxiety-free elation and happiness—is part two of a trilogy and the sequel to 2012's award-winning Fringe success, The List, in which Beattie also starred. There are similar themes at work here: frustration, responsibility, courage, fate, and the differing roles of women and men, who are represented here as creatures of excitement, opportunity and danger, often shockingly so.

Played out on a shiny black stagefloor with a simple static set and just a handful of props, it’s hard to take your eyes off the action as Beattie flits between the characters and lighting states with a versatile, committed physicality. The jump-cut narrative is a little head-spinning at times, as the pan-generational parables stack up with little opportunity for the story, and the audience, to rest and breathe.

Rather than a measured yarn, the strength of The Carousel, perhaps, is in its patchwork of impressions – those moments of defiance, of escape, along with Beattie’s powerhouse performance, its strongest suits.