Peter M. Floyd

Absence returns to New England with a production this May at the Cotuit Center of the Arts out on Cape Cod. Directed by Robert Brock, the show runs in the Center’s Black Box Theater from Thursday, May 5, through Sunday, May 22. I will be on hand on opening night for a post-show talkback, which will be followed by a reception. So, come and join us!

Helen Bastion is 74 years old, but age has not taken its toll on this matriarch’s will or her need to control her family, from her compliant husband David to her resentful daughter Barb. But when she begins to suffer lapses of memory, her steely facade begins to crumble. As words lose their meaning and reality fragments, Helen’s own sense of self starts to dissolve. Is she truly disappearing, or is she becoming something greater, as the mysterious, mocking figure known as Dr. Bright promises her? Helen struggles desperately to find meaning in an existence that is slowly and inexorably becoming a void.

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Written by Peter M. Floyd
Directed by Robert Bock

Cast:
Helen: Elizabeth Liuzzi
David: R. Michael Wresinski
Barb: Bonnie Fairbanks
Samantha: Madison Oakley
Dr. Delane & Ms. Moss: Stacey Locascio
Dr. Bright: Marcus Liuzzi

Cotuit Center for the Arts
4404 Falmouth Rd
Cotuit MA 02635
May 5 – 22, 2016

I’m a bit late in posting about this (the past few weeks have been very busy indeed), but better late than never: Two weeks ago, on September 24, Fravær (as Absence is known in Norwegian) had its opening night at the Oslo Nye Trikkestallen. (This version was translated from the English by Cecilie Enersen. She was in touch with me as she made her translation, so it is faithful in both content and spirit to the original.)

And I was there! I’d made the trip to Oslo (this was my first time in Norway) to see the play’s European debut. The Trikkestallen is a small but lively theater that is generally used by the Oslo Nye Teater for children’s shows. In fact, Fravær is the first play for adults to be performed there.

It was, I have to say (and with the understanding that I might be a wee bit biased) a beautiful production. The director, Birgitte Victoria Svednsen, had assembled a first-rate cast, anchored by Marit Østbye is a lovely, nuanced performance as the aging matriarch Helen. The simple set, simultaneously austere and lovely, was designed by Milja Salovaara.

As the playwright, I was welcomed to the theater with warmth and enthusiasm. Several people expressed astonishment that I’d come so far to see the show. As if I’d miss it! I would recommend to any playwright that s/he should see his or her work in a foreign language. When you are divorced with the words of the play, you become connected with its essence, with the emotional ties that connect the characters to one another. (Also, you don’t find yourself constantly thinking, “Wow, that line’s a clinker. Why didn’t I rewrite that?”)

After the performance, there was a reception with Champagne and merriment. Below are a few pictures of me (feeling rather giddy) with the Oslo Nye Teater folks. (For pictures from the production itself, check out the show’s gallery.)

The play runs through October 23rd. Tickets are available here.

Here are some local reviews (in Norwegian, of course):

Aftenposten (rating 5/6)

Dagbladet (rating 5/6)

VG (rating 5/6)

The poster for Fravær (the version of Absence being performed by the Oslo Nye Trikkestallen) is now available! As are tickets, which you can order from this website. Words can not express (yes, I know what a thing for a writer to say) how jazzed up I am that the play will be performed in the Land of Ibsen later this month!

Fravær
Oslo Nye Trikkestallen
Oslo, Norway
September 24 – October 17

9/7/15: Bumping post to put it to the top of the page

The Boston Globe features a beautiful article by Don Aucoin on the recent flurry of plays about victims of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Among the plays he discusses are Bruce Graham’s The Outgoing Tide, Sharr White’s The Other Place, Barney Norris’s Visitors, and my own Absence. 

Given that Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia envelop their victims in a mental fog, it’s striking that Absence and other dramas depict it as a force for a certain kind of clarity, as the ailing protagonists strive for reconciliation with estranged family members. That impulse is crystallized in a line from Visitors, which will run Sept. 18-Oct. 10 at Martha’s Vineyard Playhouse, by an Alzheimer’s-afflicted woman who says to her son: “What if I died, and I still haven’t managed to have even one conversation with you?”