How I Murdered My Mother

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This article was published 3/7/2019 (681 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Gerald Williams kills, but not literally, in this raw one-man show about death and all that it leaves behind.

Armed with slideshow and a knack for storytelling, Williams delivers an engaging performance that lays bare the complicated relationships he had with his late parents and his mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis. The show oscillates between endearing and gut-wrenching anecdotes that lead to laughs one moment and gasps the next. It’s those ups and downs that hold the audience’s attention through the nearly hour-long stream of consciousness, which sometimes feels like a university lecture thanks to the PowerPoint presentation.

The content is deeply personal and Williams, a Vancouver-based playwright and director, breaks down several times while retelling his family’s story. How I Murdered My Mother, directed by Amber Scott, is a meditation on death and expectations framed in an everyday people’s history.

— Eva Wasney