Mom’s the Word: Talkin’ Turkey is a cathartic and riotous celebration of the wonderful absurdity that is motherhood and the emotional rollercoaster that is the holiday season. The production was created by the Mom’s the Word Collective, which includes Jill Daum, Alison Kelly, Robin Nichol, Barbara Pollard, and Deborah Williams, and was directed by Pam Johnson. What makes the performance so special is the five women who wrote and star in it have been performing some version of it together for 30 years. Each mom offers a different personality and parenting style, as well as different holiday coping mechanisms. Together they offer a unique perspective for every kind of mom, as long as that mom doesn’t take herself too seriously.
In this revue-style production, complete with costumed musical numbers, the moms are funny, brave, and outrageous. They touch on life with grown kids, ailing parents, childhood trauma, the loss of a spouse, and the importance of alcohol during the holiday season. This play had me laughing so hard my face hurt.
Johnson, who is also the set designer, stages the Christmas-themed shenanigans in front of an advent-calendar-style gingerbread house. The doors and windows of the house function as props that open to reveal cupboards or act as screens for projections. I howled as mom Barbara recalls blood pouring from her chin after taking a Christmas tree trunk to the face. Her husband had insisted they cut one down, lost his saw in the snow, and proceeded to hack it down with a sharp rock.
Also killing me was mom Robin who actually likes Christmas, reenacting a white-wine-fuelled all-nighter resulting in a Thomas the Tank Engine cake that looks more haggard then she does the next morning.
But the most brilliant comedic performance had to be Deb as the crunchy, solstice-obsessed mom who celebrates everything under the sun except Christmas in an attempt to avoid her unhappy childhood memories. The audience never laughed so hard as when Deb performed her skit about her first trip to Costco resulting in a receipt two meters long, or during her role as Robin’s dad with dementia.
However, the tender and standout moment for me was mom Barbara describing for us what Christmas means to her. It starts off cheeky, but quickly turns serious as she describes Christmas at her grandparents’ house, where she receives the precious gift of love and security that so many of us take for granted. Snuggled in safe and warm next to her grandmother she finally experiences the freedom to love and be loved.
If I had anything critical to say it would be that I would have preferred to hear all of the songs sung live, even (or especially) if out of tune. That being said, what I walked away with was a sore stomach from laughing and gratitude for the stories shared.
These brilliant performers and moms have aged like fine wines that were found stashed in the broom closet for emergencies sometime in the ’90s. They are elegant, outrageous, current and on point. They sang, they danced; they made us laugh and they made us cry. Bravo, moms.
Mom’s the Word: Talkin’ Turkey
Until Sunday, December 22
Pay what you can, Belfry Theatre
belfry.bc.ca