The Wake
Overview
It’s MIMI’S wake, in a rural border town in Northern Ireland. Caught up in getting things correct for the mother she warred with, BRIGID is feeling stressed. Her estranged daughter MARIA has joined her to spend these last few waiting hours, with a woman they both had complicated relationships with.
The Wake is darkly comic, but full of heart. It explores the matriarchal relationships in a family experiencing the seismic shock of loss, as they mourn the death of the senior Matriarch, MIMI.
Exploring the complexities that exist in female familial relationships, both MARIA and BRIGID are shocked to discover that MIMI didn’t die of old age as they expected. The discovery of a note, leads to a devastating realisation that all was not as it seemed with MIMI’s departure.
Sitting with her coffin, we are held in the present moment.
A tension exists in not being able to leave MIMI alone in her final journey, ironically giving her the most company she has had in years.
A chance for redemption emerges as MARIA and BRIGID fight through their years of misconceptions, miscommunications and an overwhelming sense of a lack of love. MARIA wants her mother in her life and extends an olive branch to BRIGID in her own revelation. Will BRIGID put her own bitterness to one side and seize the chance to show the love, that up until now, she has been unable to offer?
Characters
1. MARIA
Maria is 21 years old, struggling with her current situation. She is in her second ‘second’ year at university and is desperate to be a success in the eyes of her mother, BRIGID. She is independent through circumstance, rather than choice. She is fun-loving, delightfully romantic and has been happily exploring her sexuality. She came out as a lesbian three years previously, but has recently found herself attracted to men. She sees her ‘coming out’ as the cause of the social isolation imposed by her mother, who hasn’t visited her n Liverpool. She feels desperately guilty about MIMI, her beloved grandmother, who she has not maintained contact with, due to getting caught up in her own life. She is pregnant and is still processing the changes that this will have on her life. MARIA is exuberant, boisterous and emotionally vulnerable.
2. BRIGID
Brigid is 55 years old, a hardened woman, who has experienced immense loss in her life. She is bitter about the breakdown of her marriage, she feels that her mother contributed to this. She works as a nurse, but has slowly lost her compassion and care in the past few years. She loves her daughter, but feels disappointed that what she perceives to be ‘life choices’ will have a direct impact on the future of their already dwindling family. BRIGID has lost a sense of who she is. She is looking for a way back
Key Moments
Meeting Brigid and Maria
Setting the scene, the room with the coffin. The discovery of the fraught relationship between mother and daughter. They have been estranged for years, only reunited now through a shared feeling of responsibility towards MIMI.
The Note
A darkly comic moment of discovery that MIMI took an overdose, she has left a note outlining exactly why she chose to kill herself. MARIA realises that she has been following her grandmother’s page on Instagram- #mimimoans #selfharm #deb
Maria’s news
Maria receives a phone call early on in the wake, leading to questions about her situation. As BRIGID finally opens up to her daughter about her own relationship with MIMI; MARIA takes the opportunity to share her pregnancy news with her mother. This is a pivotal moment for the two women, as they seek comfort in the other, finally allowing themselves to be