La Mama: Nought Point Five Above Zero No Wind.

It’s Christmas and Laura is visiting her grandmother; athough this year it doesn’t feel like Christmas – for either of them.

Laura and Mummi stare at each other across the intimate traverse space; one that is framed by dirt and illuminated by soft candlelight. The silence is broken by a date and time check. And the weather. How is the weather for their trip on the bus? Nought Point Five Above Zero. No Wind.

Finnish writer, Maria Kilpi, has written a play about Finnish history that was basically unknown to me – about a region of Finland that was lost to Russia during World War II. The story, though, is about the generation gap between Laura and Mummi – and much of the story plays out like you might expect. Mummi doesn’t want to talk about history and Laura doesn’t quite understand what is missing in their relationship. The subtext about displaced persons barely registers.

Sophia Riozzi creates in Laura a woman who wants to know her grandmother and her history, but can’t find a way to connect. It might have been an interesting story to see unfold, if not for the flaw in last night’s performance from Shirley Cattunar as Mummi.

Throughout the show, Cattunar lost her lines and where she was in the script. The stage manager was primed to prompt her and, in several moments, Riozzi had to guide Cattunar to where she was supposed stand in certain scenes. Early on, I thought this might have been a convention of the production – but the longer the show went on, it seemed like a failing of the elderly actor.

Notes on the show suggest this was a difficult play to translate, because of the specific cultural and regional heritage of the story and characters. With that language lost, all this production has left are a number of evocative images that is undermined by characters we cannot connect with because of a flaw in one of the performances.