In Small Doses

A mother visits her daughter to help her recover from an injury – but her large suitcase and an admission that she’s left her interstate partner suggests it’s for longer than a weekend.

Real-life mother and daughter discuss, debate, and argue their way around parental respect, how the rules apply differently to mother and daughter, and why the daughter’s partner isn’t right for her. It’s a clash of generational and cultural values deliciously thrown around the simple stage, scenes of intense conversation and passive aggressiveness interspersed with a balletic duet scored by Tchaikovsky, where they literally dance around each other.

The interplay between daughter Maroussia Vladi and mother Youlia Alexander is wonderful – when Vladi exposes her mother’s inconsistencies, Alexander retreats behind her protests of manners, and a headache; they take it turns to be offended by each other, and while you can see what’s been passed down from parent to child, each belong to their own age and culture. With the mother’s Russian origins and daughter’s Australian coming-of-age, there’s plenty of disjoints to devour – and the pair take on everything, nibbling and biting as the story progresses and the relationship diminishes, the frustration and freneticism increasing to its inevitable climax.

The narrative is a little unbalanced – the conclusion feels rushed to fit the time – but the situations are painfully recognisable, prompting equal parts of laughter and cringe. Vladi and Alexander have to contend with a loud and busy city the other side of their performance space and they achieve this without flinching. It’s a realistic examination of mother-daughter relationships that warrants an hour away from the adjacent trapeze act to witness the one happening here.

Review by Mark Wickett

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