REVIEW: LETTERS TO MY DEAD MOTHER by Ana Carolina Borge at The Hope Theatre 12 & 13 June 2022

‘Abounding with humour, and balancing the pathos’ ★★★★ ½

They say that there is nothing certain in life except death and taxes. Let me add one more certainty. A detailed discussion of the first topic will lead to a spectrum of reactions.

Part storytelling, part physical theatre, part monologue, part visual projection, Letters to My Dead Mother is an ode to the passing of Ana Carolina Borge’s mother, and also, as it turns out, her father. It will make you think about death in a new light. You would think it has to be like listening to a requiem. It most definitely is not.

Ana performed her own piece, abounding with humour, and balancing the pathos. She discussed cancer, suffering, death, and even Covid and made us laugh. How does she manage this?

With a large white circle painted on the floor and simple props: a white mask, tambourine, red chair, and a tote bag, from which she pulls out a lettered water bottle and bandana, she also has a projection with letters in Portuguese on one wall (from her own journals). Interjecting phrases in Portuguese, she held the tambourine to dance with, to represent birth and raising a child, and she used it as a sun reflector in a very memorable beach scene. Some beautiful direction and artistic flair given to this piece.

The audience had a huge spectrum of reactions to the topic and its presentation but even the hardest heart was at least somewhat softened on hearing this narrative. At one point, she looked at everyone in the room one by one with a quivering lip, which could be seen as personal or manipulative. Whatever the response in that moment, the reaction of the audience was electric at the completion of the piece, with everyone rising to their feet.

Grief stories abound (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote Notes on Grief recently for her father), for surely anyone experiencing the shock of such loss must feel as if it is their experience alone and writing about it can be so healing. I wondered why Borges chose to perform the piece. Why put yourself through it again? Was it not enough to write it, but she had to repeat the experience several times? Is it cathartic? Is it hearkening back to the days when rituals of death would help us mourn and work through grief?

All I know is that Ana’s mother was fortunate to have a daughter’s love such as this. And I couldn’t help wondering about this memorialised mother who must have had an incredible story herself.

What a love to experience in this life. And such a thing as that is never certain.

LETTERS TO MY DEAD MOTHER

Written and performed by Ana Carolina Borges

Directed by Almiro Andrade and Najla Andrade

Animator: Amelia Grace Eve

Prep & Costume Designer: Caio Sanfelice

Reviewed by Mariam Mathew