Julianna Damer

Albertine’s portraits of the past reveal a life of regret

We’d all like to think we live our lives with no regrets — that at the end of the day, we made the right decisions in our lives. But regret has a way of creeping into our thoughts, leaving a black stain on our memories until it becomes such an overpowering presence that it’s all we can think about. This idea is central to the Walterdale Playhouse’s latest production, Albertine in Five Times, examining the havoc regret can create in our lives.

The play focuses on 70-year-old Albertine (Ruby Swekla), nearing the end of her life and moving into a retirement home. In a moment of reminiscence, she finds herself thinking back over her life, reflecting on herself at age 30, 40, 50 and 60. Albertine’s younger incarnations come to life as she goes back to talk to herself at these ages, re-examining the sources of the profound regret she now finds plaguing her.

Taking place over the course of four decades, Albertine in Five Times uses five different actors to portray Albertine through the different stages of her life. All five women remain on stage throughout the performance, and while clothing and hairstyles may change from version to version of Albertine, her regret and bitter attitude remain constant throughout. Mary-Ellen Perley, who plays Albertine at 50 years old, sees her character’s anger as her defining characteristic.
“I think (her rage) rules her, and that’s why she’s constantly struggling with it,” Perley says. “There are many times in the play where all the Albertines talk about their rage and say, ‘If only I didn’t have this rage,’ or how the rage gets in the way of them being able to cope with life.”

While Albertine’s family plays a role in her attitude, there’s also the time period to consider. Set in 20th– century Quebec, Director Mary Jane Kreisel points to the lack of support for women during the 1940s and 1950s, arguing that situation and circumstance play a role in Albertine’s current unhappiness as much as anything else.

“Rage comes from situations. It also comes from personalities and from places I think we all have (within us),” Kreisel says. “(Albertine’s) situation causes the rage; her personality causes the rage; the generational gap between her mother, herself and her daughter causes it; and then the situation that her daughter ends up getting into later on causes it.

“It’s odd how change, luck and situations, or even social and cultural situations as in this case, put you in certain circumstances.”

Because the source of Albertine’s wrath and regret can’t be attributed to a single event, it seems impossible that Albertine could ever recover from the hits her life has taken over the years. And while the memories of Albertine’s past will remain with her for the rest of her life, Kreisel believes the true message of the play rests on Albertine’s ability — or inability — to reconcile with her past decisions and choices at the end of her life.

“It is a memory play, but it’s also a play that looks at choices and self-determination in people’s lives,” Kreisel says. “And in the end, when one is sitting in one’s retirement home or one’s house, sitting and thinking back, will we be thinking that our choices were good ones? And if they weren’t, can we accept and reconcile those choices?”

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