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Stephen Heatley Director's Notes |
| Memory is such a personal and ephemeral thing. I remember once having one of those middle-of-the-night-truth-telling conversations with a very dear friend and reminding him about something he had once related to me that had entirely changed the way I think. | |
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wise friend and the event of this telling had altered me irrevocably.
He looked at me sheepishly and confessed that he could remember neither
the event nor ever having espoused that piece of wisdom. As an undergraduate,
I had a wonderful teacher who possessed a rich imagination. She began
telling people of an incident that involved me which I knew to be
a somewhat elastic telling of the truth. The more often she told this
story, the more colourful it became to the point where I actually
began to prefer her memory of what had happened to my own somewhat
drab recollection. I started to tell the story with her embellishments.
Now I'm not sure I can really remember which parts of the story truly
happened and which parts are the embellishments.
So, in Good Mother, we are asked to consider whether a person who embodies so many of our memories is still that same person if she cannot remember any of the things we hold so dear about her. We are also asked to consider "what is normal". In the aftermath of the tragedy of September 11th, this is a question occupying the hearts and souls of the entire continent. Anne's accident creates a "new normal" for the Driver family, a situation to which the family members must either adapt or be forever stuck in some memory that is no longer true. Working on new plays has always been a passion of mine. It is a great honour to be directing the second production of Good Mother, a play that already has such an auspicious track record. It is also a real delight to be working on another play written by my dear friend, Damien Atkins. And it is always a treat to work with a talented and dedicated group of actors, designers, production personnel and colleagues. Enjoy. Stephen Heatley |
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