BARRHEAD - A former Barrhead woman is staging a one-person play at the Edmonton Fringe Festival to honour her mother.
From Aug. 17 to Aug. 27, Michelle Martin will perform I Carry Your Heart With Me at the Sugar Swing Ballroom in the upstairs ballroom.
The play is about Martin's journey of grief and loss, living with a mother, and ultimately learning to let go, and how she found peace, acceptance and joy by getting to know her mother all over again as an adult.
Martin is an actor and producer currently based in Vancouver. She has several Canadian theatre and television credits to her resume, including Frequency, Dead of Summer, The Romeo Section, The Whispers, Supernatural, A Novel Romance, Accidental Obsession, CTV's Traders, and two seasons as a series lead on the CBC's evening drama, Riverdale. Michelle also completed the independent feature film Backroads, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival and the short film Sleepwalk, which won the Audience Choice Award at the New York City Short Horror Film Festival. She is also the founder of Egg Theatre Company.
The play, which Martin also penned, is a homage to her mother, Cecile, who was a fixture in Barrhead's Community Theatre before her death from breast cancer in 1980 at age 36.
Michelle was 12 at the time.
"My mother had a profound influence on my life. She is the reason I am an actor," she said. "The play is about her and my journey and grief of living without a mother."
Martin noted that her mom was a talented singer and actor in her own right, who starred in many of the productions staged by the community theatre, including Blithe Spirit, the Sound of Music and Fiddler on the Roof. However, she was most known for her portrayal of the title roles in Annie Get Your Gun and Irma la Douce.
"It was because of her work, specifically at the Barrhead Community Theatre, and the opportunity that I had to be on stage with her in some of these productions that inspired me to follow her footsteps," Martin said.
Although the play is about Martin, her mother, their relationship and the loss thereof, Barrhead figures in prominently, so much so that she said it might be considered a character.
In addition to being part of the arts community, Cecile was active in other community endeavours; the one she is most known for is helping to spearhead the fundraising effort to construct a children's playground in what was then known as Barr Manor Park. Due to her efforts, Barrhead resident Wilma Thompson urged Town of Barrhead councillors to rename the park in her honour.
"I talk about the Barrhead Community Theatre and the park a lot in my show because she and I loved them so much," she said.
Two years ago, Martin, her father and siblings returned to Barrhead to commemorate the 41st anniversary of the renaming of Cecile Martin Park.
At the ceremony, Martin recited part of her mother's speech that she made to her oncologist while undergoing cancer treatment at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton in 1979, about four months before she passed away.
Her father, Richard, a former principal at then Lorne Jenken High School, recorded the 40-minute speech.
"I use part of the speech in my show, and you can actually hear her voice through that recording," Martin said.
She added if it had not been for the recording, she does not know if she would have created the play.
"It was a treasure trove, and I knew I had to use it on stage," Martin said. "That it was a way that I could talk about her to those who did not know her. And even to those that did."
Martin said she has been working on the play, on and off, for more than five years, but it was after she returned home to Barrhead for the commemorative ceremony for Cecile Martin Park that she knuckled down, and it started to take shape.
Initially, she did not plan to play both parts, saying she believed it would be too painful for her to play her mother.
"When I did readings of the play with other actors playing Cecile, it did not feel 100 per cent right," Martin said, adding she then decided to play the role herself. "After receiving feedback from some of my trusted friends, colleagues, acting teachers, and directors here in Vancouver, who said I needed to play her and make it a one-woman show. But it was a process, and it took about two years until I was ready to play her."
Martin performed the play for the first time at Toronto's Fringe Festival in July to well-received reviews.
For more information about show times and how to purchase tickets, visit Martin's Egg Theatre Company website (www.eggtheatre.com).
Barry Kerton, TownandCountryToday.com
