- Secrets of A Soccer Mom by Kathleen Clark, a Laughing Matters Theatre Production at Presentation House Theatre to March 10. Box office: 604-990-3474.
THERE should be a huge North Shore audience for Secrets of a Soccer Mom.
Soccer - especially girls' soccer - is booming here. Visit any playing field at the weekend and you'll spot little groups of parents up and down the sidelines huddled together like sparrows puffed up against the cold.
Kathleen Clark's play takes three such moms as they wait their turn to play in a game against their sons. As the game progresses, we learn a little more about each one and the "problems" in their lives while they split their focus between each other and their kids. All moms will relate to Lynn's line about every atom of her being focused on every fibre of her children and her conclusion: "It's exhausting."
Initially, the moms debate whether or not to throw the game in order to empower their kids, but the play is ultimately about whether or not the moms will empower themselves.
Nancy used to be a model and has dreams of being a photographer, but is at such an impasse in her life that she pops "mother's little helpers" and never does anything with the photographs she shoots.
Alison (Jessica Heafey, the most engaging of the three actors) appears the youngest of the moms, but perhaps she is just the most frantic. A former athlete, she feels trapped in a marriage with a man who controls her - and yells at her in public.
On the face of it, Lynn (Jenny Mitchell) has it all together as the supermom of the group, the organizer who is never without her calendar and marker pens. But her husband sounds like a stereotypical bore and even she mourns for the girl she used to be.
We learn a little more than what I have sketched in here, but not a lot. There are some amusing riffs with the offstage offspring, the offstage ref, the offstage dads, but unfortunately that's where most of the drama stays: offstage.
Over the course of the game, the three open up a little more to each other and bond a little closer, but dramatically there is no real payoff.
There are some sweet passes to applaud, but the script is no cup-winner.
