[NoHo Arts District, CA] – A NoHo Arts theatre review of Null Set Production’s Ophelia written and directed by Stefan Marks at The Odyssey Theatre, running through May 25.
Ophelia is a play about losing your mind. Losing it by dementia, losing it by divorce and of course losing it blissfully by desire. Sometimes a mind should be lost I suppose, if it’s full of regret or sadness or fear. In Ophelia, writer Stefan Marks explores the losing of an aging mother’s mind to dementia and as who she was leaves her we witness what she holds on to the tightest. The writer of the play, Stefan Marks, plays the role of her only son and their relationship is deep and loving, but also tinged with sadness and loneliness and the fact that she shot and killed his father. As a mother of adult children, I felt a close camaraderie with her. How she needed to protect her son then and now, wanting to insulate him against the loneliness she found. She impresses upon him the urgency to find a woman, fall in love and make a new family to have children of his own, even knowing it would be without her. That’s love I think.
Her son does meet someone, across the street from the memory care facility where she is placed. He meets her at a tea shop, although he despises tea. As soon as they meet they feel as if they know one another. Not just in the way we are drawn to familiarity or a certain look about someone, but deeply, profoundly.
The play is a mesmerizing mix of traditional conversation and in conversation directly to the audience as if we are hearing the thoughts unfold in all their minds. We share moment by moment the electric, almost shocking way they instantly connect.
Sometimes you meet people, randomly usually, who shake you somehow. It’s as if every moment in your life has led you to them, even if you never see them again. Is this a glitch in the matrix or just some neurological whimsy? Or is it something else entirely.
These powerful characters and their simple goals of love and meaning in the spiraling careen of our wild and unruly lives shook me, changed me, opened something up. In the way that powerful prose does or poetry or a song you can’t shake.
The story resonated, the discovery and rediscovery these characters make through each other and with each other made an impact…the way only the most brilliant art can do. It’s extremely funny too, in a very clever, dry way.
With close relationships comes the comfort of sharp wit and loving jabs pulled from memory and experience…something else that is sadly lost when our minds are. There’s a weird and wonderful twist to the tale, in the form of a reset button the mother has. A gift from her abusive husband. It actually works. It resets the universe, or more specifically her universe and wipes away as much or as little as she deems fit. It has the effect of removing all memory of a person. Whichever person you choose. As if they never existed in your life at all. How many times would I have a use for that? That might seem like an obvious answer, but if I’m honest, after watching this play I’m not sure I would dare to ever use it. People are always drawn to the people they are meant to be with, in one form or another. What’s the point in even trying to control that, when the balance will always return to the place it was meant to be? But it does make for an excellent pivot in a story and a truly perfect ending.
Stefan Marks is a beautiful writer. An excellent actor and, with the magical casting of this phenomenal play, a wonderful director. Deborah Geffner as the mother is profoundly good, a revelation in fact and the marvelous Tatum Langton as the woman is incandescent and extraordinary. We believe that any man could fall instantly for her, such is the exquisite nuance of her performance. Stefan Marks was blessed to have found these remarkable actresses to inhabit these wonderful roles. It makes the story of them all make perfect sense. His role is the center around which they levitate…
Ophelia is a truly exceptional play. Full of mystical magical meaning and dark heartache but also imbued with an intense hopefulness and light.
I absolutely loved it and cannot recommend this gorgeous play enough and I hope you find the time to see it. I’m sure it will be nominated for absolutely everything…it deserves it. Loved it!
Tickets:
THE CAST
Deborah Geffner as “MOM”
Tatum Langton as “HER”
Stefan Marks as “SON”
|Understudy for “HER” – Amy Braddock
THE PRODUCTION TEAM
Produced by: Null Set Productions
Writer/Director: Stefan Marks
Technical Director/Lighting Design: Mark Svastics
Set Design: Stefan Marks & Mark Svastics
Stage Manager: Bobby Pearsons
Tech Op: Stephen Epstein
Costume Design: Paula Higgins
Publicist: Sandra Kuker PR • Sandra Kuker-Franco
Social Media: Mia Christou
Web Design: Matt Kaminsky
Casting Assistants: Matt Kaminsky & Keith Middleton
Poster Design: Ethan Kaminsky • Kaminsky Productions
Stage Crew: Mark Svastics, Bobby Pearsons, Matt Kaminsky, Steve Epstein
Where:
The Odyssey Theatre
2055 S Sepulveda Blvd, Los Angeles
When:
Extended through May 25
Thursday, Friday and Saturday 8PM
Plus Saturday 3PM (April 27, May 4, 11 and 18)