COLLECT YOUR MEMORIES WITH “MARJORIE PRIME”

RYAN HENDRICKSON, SUSAN KULP AND MARTY TUCKER

Time, age and health dictate life changes, especially if Alzheimer’s enters and blurs the picture. Needing help from homemakers, nurses and companions often allow the patient to continue living at home or signal a move to a nursing home facility. For the family of Marjorie Lancaster, it means bringing a Prime, a robot who stands in for a loved one, into her life as the 85 year old struggles to lead a meaningful life. Marjorie is brought poignantly to life by Margaret Mann as she copes with a last difficult stage of aging. 

New Haven Theater Company Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 p.m. until March 9 will bring this compelling tale by Jordan Harrison, and sensitively and well directed by Trevor Williams, to futuristic reality. Marjorie’s daughter Tess, played with spirit and sass by Susan Kulp, has never enjoyed an easy or loving relationship with mom. Tess, with understanding and supportive husband Jon, a loving and caring Marty Tucker, want to help both mom and daughter find a reconciliation before it’s too late.

To that end, he has introduced a robot, a Prime, into Marjorie’s life, a much younger version of her late husband Walter. Ryan Hendrickson is now Walter, and has been programmed with memories to talk to Marjorie and be a companion to relive the past in a more acceptable manner. He is not to talk about the son they tragically lost through suicide, but rather about her escapades with romantic beaus and the family’s wonderful pet poodle Toni. And if, along the way, the wounds between daughter and mother are healed, well all the better.

With quiet elegance and poignant touches, this fine cast brings out the difficulties of aging and of rewriting the past to find peace. It addresses how memory works and how it can be manipulated. The timeline of these thoughts is often confusing, like the reference to Christo and New York’s art creation The Gates but not disturbing enough to destroy the underlying strong feelings of how to find connections.

For tickets ($20 ), contact the New Haven Theater Company athttps://www.newhaventheatercompay.com/.Performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. at EBM, 839 Chapel Street, New Haven at the back of the vintage consignment shop.

 Have you ever wanted to edit and rewrite your personal history? Here is a unique way to make that happen to iron out all the wrinkles that messed up your past.