Baking pies, striving for memories

This weekend, the Portland State University Theater Department brings us a production of Kathleen Tolan’s play, Memory House, at the Lincoln Hall Studio Theater. This quarter the production is not directed by a graduate student but by PSU professor Julie Akers.

The studio theater is a very small and intimate venue, and Akers has chosen a play in which there are only two actors, both onstage the entire time.

Memory House occurs in real-time over an hour and a half in the life of a mother and her teenage daughter. The daughter attempts–actually attempts to avoid–writing a college entrance exam. The question she must reply to is about her “Memory House,” and she is balking at the request to delve into the past. In typical procrastinating style, the deadline to postmark the letter is upon her, but she is still writing the essay.

Her mother has returned home from work and decided she will try, for the first time in her life, to bake a pie. The mother and daughter talk to, or at, each other as they go over issues from their family and personal pasts. The daughter, Katia, was adopted as a child from Russia and is trying to come to grips with this. The mother, Maggie, is avoiding life after a marriage gone wrong.

The set is well designed and built. It includes a full and detailed kitchen and living room, complete with a functional oven (well, toaster oven) and a stereo. The lighting is also well handled. When you notice it, which is rare due to the subtlety of the work, you realize how much it is adding to the performance. The directing also works well, and we don’t get bored of what are essentially two people onstage for 90 minutes talking.

The actors also give excellent performances. Freshman newcomer Alyx Long embodies the role of Katia, a girl with features befitting Eastern Europe, but with a style entirely New York (where the play takes place). She brings the sullen attitude of teenagers to life in her character. Twila Nesky handles the role of the mother Maggie just as well, bringing the frustration and futility of her character to life.

As the plot unfolds, deep political issues are touched upon. U.S. foreign policy is compared to a playground bully-one that alienates everyone else. Also touched on is the debate going on in some corners about foreign adoptions, especially by celebrities. These come mostly by way of the ex-husband, who is a professor and never appears onstage, but exerts great influence on Katia’s thoughts.

The way these issues are handled is troublesome, however. These are problems that most people are just beginning to see exist. The most effective approach would be to really focus on these issues and illuminate them for the audience. Instead, in typical New York fashion, the play assumes everyone else has the same knowledge the author does and chooses to focus on the mother-daughter dynamic.

The script is the weakest part of this production. The characters are not particularly likeable, or even relatable. Any sympathy we might have for them or their plight is overwhelmed by the banal and immature ways in which both constantly act, including the mother. The bitterness and detachment of the mother and daughter respectively, leave us with a bad taste in our mouth.

By the end of the play, some salvation is to be had in the form of the final reading of Katia’s essay, which contains nearly the only pathos in the play. Her recounting of the experience, first of living in a Russian orphanage and then of being adopted, really helps to illuminate how scary both can be for a child. It’s no wonder they say all adopted children have attachment disorder to some degree.

For those interested in mother-daughter dynamics, issues like U.S. foreign policy, issues around adoption (especially foreign), or just wishing to see good character performances, this will be an interesting play.

Memory House

Thursday through Saturday, April 17 – 19

7:30 p.m.

Lincoln Hall Studio Theater

$3 for students and $5 otherwise