The Whitefire Theatre Solofest Presents “Forgetting, Not Forgotten.” Written and Performed by Petal D’Avril. Directed and Developed by Rebecca Lynn Johnson.
Petal’s story is one of loss, love, strength and gentrification.
It begins at her home in Los Angeles where she lives with her mother and sister, a home her mother has lived in for 40 years or more, where the girls were born and brought up and a neighborhood filled with memories and old friends. Her mother has a fall while the girls are at work and, while they are all in the hospital with her, they learn that she has early onset Alzheimer’s. Their world changes drastically in that moment and, while Petal and her sister learn to cope with all that her mother now needs from them, the roles of mother and child reversing as they often do. They are told by their landlords that their home is sold and they must move out.
It’s an awful lot to process for two young women who had plans and dreams of their own, now they must find a place to live and work and somewhere to support their mother’s needs. How tragic it is for them that when a home is what they need the most, it is taken from them in such a heartless and brutal way. Gentrification is a soulless monster and it’s everywhere…
Petal is such a beautiful soul, petit but fierce and strong, her spirit lifts this sad story. Even while she herself weeps and we with her, there is such a light from her, such a hope that we can’t help but smile. She presents this story as a quest, a long journey and one she still walks, but one filled with grace in the face of adversity and love in place of hate.
Solo plays are at their most magical when they are at their most intimate. This story is ongoing and unfolding still. Petal shares her fears and her triumphs and her tragedies with poise and with purpose. She finds her light in this and we find it with her. There is beauty in all our stories and especially in this one…Bravo Petal!!!