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ORONO – Alzheimer’s is a disease of observation. The mind of one person deteriorates while the world watches, trying to figure out what happened to the loved one it knew.
Dulcinea Langfelder would have us look beyond what we see – beyond the dotty old lady who wrestles with hospital curtains and thinks pills are little cookies.
Langfelder would have us know “Victoria,” the character she brought to the Maine Center for the Arts on Sunday. The play was based on text written by Charles Fariala, who worked as an orderly in nursing facilities, and the Canadian actress’ performance inspired by a 90-year-old woman she knew.
Victoria, of course, remembers no one and makes no sense much of the time, but still has her manners.
“Oh, you came to see me. How lovely of you,” she coos. “You’re not a talker? Neither am I.”
She battles her wheelchair, the curtains, her shadow and the orderly, played by the imposing Eric Gingras.
He hefts her around in a kind of sad ballet, frustrated by her nattering on and her inability to stay clean. But he also kneels tenderly to sing her a sweet “Happy Birthday.”
When the lights come up, it’s a cue that Victoria is leaving her Alzheimer’s for a visit to her imagination – a place where she tangos and tap dances.
But the darkness always returns, leaving the occasional jarring truth:
“The important thing is that we’re here now,” she says, and “The older I get, the more vividly I remember things that never happened.”
Langfelder and Gingras work well together and with each other’s shadows, and the videos that create shadow scenes around them are most effective.
“Victoria” was originally performed in French, and a bit of the play was in French – some singing and Victoria talking to her cat.
As powerful as the main portion of the play is, the ending is even better. With Victoria seated with her back to the audience, silent as in the last stage of Alzheimer’s, a hand puppet does the talking for her: “I feel good when I’m with you. I, I feel – I feel in the moment.”
Eventually, the lights dim, rise again, and an empty wheelchair rolls to center stage. Victoria is gone.
“Victoria” was the annual partnership of the University of Maine’s Maine Center for the Arts and Community Health and Counseling.
CHCS offers geriatric dementia and evaluation services in Penobscot, Piscataquis, Hancock and Washington counties, including free in-home diagnostic services for people experiencing the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.
For information on CHCS services, call 947-0366 or (800) 924-0366; or visit the Web site at www.chcs-me.org.
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