My Mind Is Like an Open Meadow
Memory, old age and the importance of living life to the fullest are the themes of this solo performance by Hand2Mouth Theatre member Erin Leddy. The show’s something of a duet, actually, between Leddy and sampled recordings that her now-91-year-old grandmother, Sarah Braveman, made in 2001 and 2010, cleverly edited to create a convincing illusion of live conversation. Braveman serves as narrator, critic and subject, reading poems, critiquing her granddaughter’s lovely, Death Cab-esque songs and recalling painful memories of her childhood. As with most of Hand2Mouth’s projects, the show contains plenty to both appeal to and alienate all comers—a dance sequence that borders on the ridiculous, gratuitous pantlessness—but its good moments are very good. Braveman’s struggle to remember the names of long-dead cats is heartbreaking, and the soundscape created by Ash Black Buffalo, John Berendzen and Holcombe Waller is as immersive and compelling as anything I’ve experienced. Leddy’s performance is physically strenuous and emotionally draining, her best work to date.
Where: The Mouth
Phone: hand2mouththeatre.org
Address: Inside Zoomtopia, 810 SE Belmont St.
Website: hand2mouththeatre.org








