Rose in the Machine follows the life of a Quebec mother, Maude, as she navigates life after an autism diagnosis of her three-year old daughter, Rose. It is a beautiful, moving docu-drama that is playing at the NAC tonight and tomorrow.
The journey will feel eerily familiar for anyone who has had to navigate the health care and/or education system with a child who doesn’t fit in the expected boxes of life. And if you are one of those people, you will laugh and shed a few tears of empathy for Rose and her family, and maybe even for yourself.
Maude’s struggles to access resources and care for Rose, not to mention the various levels of understanding she encounters along the way from early childhood educators, child psychologists, social workers, speech therapists, occupational therapists to bureaucrats, are jaw-dropping. The roadblocks that continually present themselves, wonderfully symbolic on a stage peppered with wooden boxes and a maze of tape on the stage floor, (perhaps a puzzle looking to be put together?) are staggering.
However, what is particularly poignant are the touching moments of self-reflection and clarity Maude experiences.
This two-person play stars Julie Trépanier as Maude and Natalie Tannous, who brilliantly takes on the multitude of people Maude meets on her journey. Tannous is phenomenal, whether it is as the unsympathetic bureaucrat, disengaged principal, beaten-down discouraged father or as the supportive and spaced-out social workers. She even pulls off adult autistic characters with incredible accuracy. Trépanier’s Maude is moving, funny and engaging.
This play educates, moves, and will leave you thinking about your own reactions to people with differences, and not just neurodivergent individuals.
The thing about those boxes, is that they are just speed bumps, obstacles in life that just slow you down. and the play ends with a positive message of hope.
The show plays tonight, Friday May 3rd, at 7:30 p.m., tomorrow, Saturday May, 4th at 2:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. www.nac-cna.ca
If you are a parent or caregiver of a young person on the spectrum, the matinée show will be dedicated to you. There will be discounted tickets as well as a free inclusive arts workshop for your autistic child(ren) and their siblings while you watch the show.
Contact aimee.bouchard@nac-cna.ca to register.
PHOTO: Maxime Côté