Written and performed by Mara Neimanis, Naomi’s Flight is a solo aerial performance which tells the story of Neimanis’s mother’s journey into dementia.
Adeptly hanging, swinging, and posing in snapshots of life, on three asymmetrical suspended steel sculptures, Neimanis integrates words, movement, music and dementia news reports in to this one-hour expressive piece.
Neimanis depicts the love of her father, Naomi’s 82-year-old carer husband George for his wife, evoking moving moments from the past through his eyes, Naomi’s and Neimanis’s herself.
Her mother’s history, as a Russian/Jewish child born in New York is described, her brilliance as a musician, performer, teacher, member of Mensa, as well as her burdens - diabetes, an eating-disorder, her body as “a cage,” and progressive dementia.
The poignant evolution of George’s relationship is expressed, as his adored wife, once “a cross between Greta Garbo and Ava Gardner” becomes a patient and he a nurse. Naomi has “taken flight.”
Directed by Bryce Butler, this In-Flight Theater production from Baltimore, USA, received audience praise in a post-show discussion for its “totally authentic” portrayal of the impact of the disease. Neimanis described the unique “land of myth” occupied when off the ground which never allowed a descent into despair.
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