By EDUARDO SINKEVISQUE
Considerations about the play directed by Lavínia Pannunzio and Carlos Gradim
Lasting one hour, exactly one hour, the play Mother and son, by Jon Fosse, Nobel Prize winner for Literature in 2023, tells the story of a meeting between two strangers, although with very close family ties, perhaps the strongest bond in genetic terms is that of mother and son.
The son visits the mother he has not lived with all his life, having been raised by his grandmother and then moving to live with his father.
The action, without the actors leaving the scene during the entire show, is a verbal duel that gradually becomes physical as well.
The atmosphere that fills the concert hall, spilling over from the stage to the audience, is tense, embarrassing, specular; After all, family relationships are always very complex, if not ruined.
The play begins with the actors one in front, in the proscenium, and one in the back. Flash of light. Light off. At the new flash of light the positions are reversed. At first the thing has a beautiful, almost expressionistic plasticity. Throughout the acidic, sharp dialogues, with presupposed, interrupted, guessed lines, etc., the initial silent scene makes perfect sense. And, without anticipating the end to the reader, all the meaning at the end of the piece.
How and what to talk to someone who has such a close blood bond but such a distant life?
The situation is not peaceful for either mother or child. She is a woman who did not accept the place imposed by patriarchal society as a homemaker and mother. He, a man who is looking to understand why he didn't have his mother.
More than throwing in the faces of both, for both, hurts, resentments, the characters of Mother and son proposes reflections: social places, family roles, vocations, insubordination, desires, choices, gender, sexuality, etc. Two very close strangers, two very strange neighbors.
The white light, by Aline Santini, with hues, shadows, the white setting, by Bia Junqueira, give a cold, clean, distant atmosphere.
The text spoken by the actors gradually warms up.
At the beginning there is already discomfort and at the same time interest in the meeting, although there is a crescendo of this, which is mixed with attempts at getting closer between the characters, until they reach the point of touching and hugging each other.
The swing on the set is not a mere prop, as is the bench where the actors climb and balance. The direction knew how to make them metaphors for affective oscillations, the swaying, staggering positioning of the characters and the changes in positions: talk! Do not speak. No, it's nothing; It's just... nevermind... You look more like me than you think. I'm actually sadistic. You do not know nothing. What literature is this that you studied? It's literature, isn't it?
The mother is sometimes cruel, often ironic. Maybe she doesn't let her son talk, even though she's interested in knowing, even though she loves him, because she doesn't or can't listen. On the other hand, the son's interest in listening to his mother is also genuine, but not the old, usual answers to what happened to them. This is the conflict from the beginning of the play.
Finally, I acknowledge Mother and son that the show has something to say, it has messages to leave. It mirrors very believable affective situations, social, bodily and emotional struggles.
*Eduardo Sinkevisque is a postdoctoral fellow in literary theory at the Institute of Language Studies (IEL) at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp).
Reference
Mother and son
Playwright: Jon Fosse
Translation: Guilherme da Silva Braga
Directed by: Lavinia Pannunzio and Carlos Gradim
Cast: Vera Zimmermann and Thiago Martelli
On view at SESC Ipiranga until August 11th.
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