(photo by John Lauener)
Round and Round She Goes
A poetic personal history
by Keely Kwok
Whether we like it or not, oftentimes our decisions are based upon those of our ancestors. Either in congruence or defiance, our actions reflect those of our parents and grandparents. Or so the unnamed Woman in Jennifer Tremblay’s The Carousel believes. As she sits vigil at the bedside of her dying mother, the Woman’s mind wanders and she relives her family’s past to make sense of the choices she, her mother, and her grandmother have made.
The Carousel is not your average one-woman show. Tremblay has not written one long monologue, rather a series of short dialogues performed by one woman. Her language is incredibly poetic and visual. Her words physicalize, with precision, emotions of love, lust, grief, and regret. And it is the expressive and transformative actress Allegra Fulton and dynamic director Megan Follows who bring these emotions to life.
