Theater Review - Family portrait

If artists’ biographies and docudramas are to be believed, it isn’t easy being an artist’s child. Aurora Theatre’s poignant Waving Goodbye suggests that the only thing worse is being the child of a blocked artist.

For years, Amanda (Joan Croker) pursued her career as a sculptor while neglecting her now-teenaged daughter, Lily (Meredith Woolard). When Lily’s mountaineer father, Jonathan (Allen Hagler), dies in an accident on Mount Everest, mother and child find themselves reluctantly reunited, forced to deal with huge bills, a leaky house and years of accumulated guilt and resentment.

Vivid, original symbols for creating art and sustaining relationships mark not just Jamie Pachino’s script, but also Waving Goodbye’s set. A gigantic, shattered picture frame brackets the performance space, a visual illustration for how Lily and Amanda struggle to piece their lives back together. When the pair argue over selling Amanda’s sculptures of Jonathan, it’s like a debate over treasuring vs. suppressing painful memories. At times Waving Goodbye’s dialogue uses the jargon of art, photography and mountain climbing to inflate the play’s metaphors at the expense of sounding natural.

Waving Goodbye nevertheless proves a far more rich and innovative work than Aurora usually produces. The word “erotic” seldom comes to mind at the family-friendly Duluth playhouse, but Waving Goodbye presents a mature (but not explicit) view of sensuality. Amanda growls, “I want to never stop sculpting you,” to Jonathan in a steamy flashback to the early, can’t-keep-their-hands-off part of their courtship. Then we see Lily and her first boyfriend (Chris Moses) flirting, photographing each other and removing their shirts in a frank but gentle portrayal of teen sex.

Croker’s and Woolard’s performances bind the play’s complexities together. Woolard gives Lily both the confidence and confusion of youth while meeting the demands of such fraught moments as Lily’s final conversation with her stranded father via satellite phone (a scene reminiscent of disaster accounts like Touching the Void). Croker conveys enough of Amanda’s inner anguish that we sympathize with her role as more than just a selfish narcissist. Though Waving Goodbye’s thematic intentions seem cloudy at first, like a Polaroid picture, its truths come increasingly into sharp focus.

curt.holman@creativeloafing.com??
Waving Goodbye plays through Feb. 13 at Aurora Theatre, 3087-B Main St., Duluth. Wed.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m. $18-$25. 770-476-7926. www.auroratheatre.com.??