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Review: 'My Mother Has 4 Noses'

It takes a special kind of narcissist to make herself the victim in a story about her own mother's suffering. Chaucer might have called it "The Caregiver's Tale," while Dante no doubt would have reserved a special place in hell alongside the similarly self-obsessed.

Jonatha Brooke in "My Mother Has 4 Noses" at People's Light. (Credit: Sandrine Lee)
Jonatha Brooke in "My Mother Has 4 Noses" at People's Light. (Credit: Sandrine Lee)Read more

It takes a special kind of narcissist to make herself the victim in a story about her own mother's suffering. Chaucer might have called it "The Caregiver's Tale," while Dante no doubt would have reserved a special place in hell alongside the similarly self-obsessed.

My place was seat D110 during People's Light and Theatre Company's production of Jonatha Brooke's one-woman show My Mother Has 4 Noses.

Brooke's mother, Darren Stone Nelson, led a fascinating life in a religious subculture. A devout Christian Scientist, Nelson penned books of poetry, wrote a column for the Christian Science Monitor, and entertained her family (and the neighborhood) with her quirky, unusual personality (dressing up as a clown, pulling items from the town dump to re-gift on holidays).

Christian Scientists forgo modern medicine in favor of prayer and counseling, and Nelson left a cancerous lesion on her face untreated until it ate away most of her mid-face and sinus cavities. Hence the title - not a metaphor, but a reference to the four prosthetic noses Nelson wore during post-facial reconstructive surgery.

Aside from a few amusing anecdotes, this medical history, and Brooke's quietly impassioned readings of two poems, the piece deals with Brooke caring for Mom during her last two dementia-addled years. Brooke weaves through original songs, sung in a pleasing folk-rock style and backed by two skilled musicians on cello and guitar. Lyrics flesh out the relationship but also detail Brooke's attitude toward caregiving, voiced in stories about the lengths to which she's gone to care for Mom.

In this regard, there's little special about her self-centered complaints. She embodies the spirit of a generation that leaves parents in nursing homes, treating like nuisances those who once nursed them. And given how much about her mother she could celebrate, why devote 10 minutes to an unfunny segment on "poop management"? Why transform a mother's physical and psychological suffering into a stage play?

Is it catharsis for what Brooke "endured," or atonement for leaving in those twilight hours to write songs in Malibu ("You need to go, take care of yourself," her friends told her)? Or is it just as she explains - a writerly approach that sees everything, including degrading dementia, as material?

THEATER REVIEW

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My Mother Has 4 Noses Through June 28 at People's Light and Theater Company,

39 Conestoga Rd., Malvern

Tickets: $27-$100.

Information: 610-644-3500

or peopleslight.org.

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