Pygmalion Theatre Company’s “Eleemosynary” is the story of women seeking love. It’s a pretty universal theme–but these three women are seeking love specifically from other women, who are already supposed to love them but are just a little broken and bad at showing it.
Dorthea, raised in a traditional household, was married off as soon as she graduated high school. All she wanted was to go to college and learn, but when this avenue was closed to her after her marriage, she instead became the ultimate eccentric.
Artemis is Dorothea’s daughter. She has an eidetic memory, meaning she literally never forgets anything. Though her mother encourages her to learn because of her own love for it, Artemis has a hatred of information as she can never forget it. For Dorothea, dealing with this compounded by the loss of her husband eventually disables her to the point where she cannot love her own daughter.
The stories of these women weave in and out of the greater story of Echo’s upbringing. Echo, technically named Barbara, is the narrator of this story and Artemis’ daughter. She is the national champion speller and a lover of words. Echo is everything her mother and grandmother aspired to be: extraordinarily intelligent, able to forget and “normal” enough to function in society as society expects her to. She lacks only one thing–her mother’s love.
‘Eleemosynary’ means charitable, specifically in terms of the giving of alms. In this case, alms has two definitions. The first is the giving of knowledge, passing it down from woman to woman in this rather odd family. The second is the giving of love. Charity is the act of giving without the expectation of receiving something in return. Echo exemplifies this. She loves without being loved in return and gives because she knows she needs to even when she is continually rejected. This play is as beautiful as it is extraordinary. The lighting is set in tones of cool blue to mimic the costumes. The names Artemis and Echo come from Greek mythology. Artemis is a goddess and Echo is a woman who lost herself to love. Both are associated with water, a theme further mirrored in the blues of the show. The set is bare and the only props are a few books and a pair of wings, for flying of course. There is no intermission and only the three women for the cast.
Sydney Shoell, who plays Echo, was marvelously flexible as an actor, in the course of about 90 minutes she grows from three months old to her teen years without losing her audience’s belief. She is funny and heartwarming with lovely moments of emotional vulnerability.
Barb Gandy, who plays Dorthea, masters the character of the well-meaning but intrusive mother. She is hilarious in her eccentricity but also caring.
Tracie Merrill’s Artemis is the tortured character in this show. She waffles between a desperation to be with her child and a terrifying fear of loss, made ironic by the fact that she could never lose anything that happened to her. She is believably exasperated in the face of Echo’s persistence and probably the most interesting character, as it was so hard to decide whether to like her or not.
This show is absolutely worth seeing, with bonus points if you take your mother or a mother-figure. It’s about how we as people love, and how important thought and love are to our lives. There is no intermission but the show is relatively short. This show is perfect for the intellectual and deals with heavy topics but it is family friendly with little swearing and some adult humor. “Eleemosynary” runs Feb. 24 through March 11, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. with an extra matinee March 11 at 2 p.m. at the Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, Black Box Theatre, 138 W. 300 South. Tickets are $15-$20 and can be purchased by calling (801) 355.ARTS (2787) or visiting Artsaltlake.org.
The original article misspelled “Pygmalion.” The mistake has since been rectified.