“Tonight, no one will rage and cry: ‘My Kingdom for a horse!’ No ghost will come to haunt the battlements of a castle in the kingdom of Denmark where, apparently, something is rotten.” So says our narrator at the beginning of For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again. He has a great many more examples and much of the fun in this opening monologue is following the references before he explains that tonight the show is going to be about his mom – Nana. It will be an evening not dedicated to the iconic bigger than life characters of the stage but instead, “What you will see tonight is a very simple woman, a woman who will simply talk…. I almost said, about her life, but the lives of others will be just as important: her husband, her sons, her relatives and neighbours. Perhaps you will recognize her. You’ve often run into her at the theatre, in the audience and on stage, you’ve met her in life, she’s one of you. She has existed throughout the ages and in every culture. She always has been present and always will be. I wanted the pleasure of seeing her again. The pleasure of hearing her. So she could make me laugh and cry. One more time, if I may.”
The play is written by celebrated Québécois novelist and playwright Michel Tremblay and translated into English by Linda Gaboriau. The story is broken into a series of scenes between the narrator and his mother Nana. We’re first introduced to Nana when her son is 10 years of age and he’s gotten in trouble with the cops which truthfully was nothing more than a bit of misguided mischief. We soon learn that Nana has a tendency towards exaggeration and melodrama when she tells her son that she will have to live a life of shame brought on her and the family by his criminal behaviour. It is through these vignettes that we learn how Tremblay’s mother instilled in him a love of reading and theatre and story.
As a memoir, the play happily breaks the fourth wall. It’s no secret that we are watching a play. In fact, that’s half the fun. The narrator gives us a wink and the occasional aside while Nana goes off on tangents and exaggerated musings about Aunt Gertrude or is in awe of seeing a live television broadcast of a show featuring French Canadian actress Huguette Oligny. It is during this scene in the play where we learn that our narrator is writing for the stage with his mother’s encouragement and support.
I love this play. I love how it begins, and I love how it ends. In fact, I’d say the ending is perfect, but I won’t reveal the ending because I don’t want to ruin it for you. All I’ll say is that Michel Trembley’s mother will be alive again. She will be telling her stories and teasing her son. Her fury at his shenanigans will rise up. Her love will shine through. And he will give her the gift of being a part of his world by being a part of a play filled with laughter and tenderness that celebrates the loving relationship between mother and son.