New play puts spotlight on Alzheimer’s caregivers

There are several good reasons to attend a workshop performance of “Blackberry Winter” this week — from getting an early look at an important new play as it “fine-tunes” itself, to offering instant audience feedback.

Another good reason to be there?

In a way, “Blackberry Winter” might be about you.

Maybe not right now. Or under precisely the same medical circumstances that surround the main character in Steve Yockey’s play. Vivienne Avery (Carolyn Cook) is doing her level best to help her (unseen) mother deal with the dementia and memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The play comprises a series of Vivienne’s sharply observed monologues interwoven with an Alzheimer’s “creation myth” featuring a mole (Joe Sykes) and an egret (Maia Knispel); the result is an often moving, at times almost unavoidably and ruefully amusing depiction of a caring daughter doing battle with a sneakily cruel disease.

The storyline is Alzheimer's specific. But its focus on caregivers — all they do for their loved ones, all they can't do for them — feels more universal. And remarkably timely now that life expectancies keep expanding, along with the number of people playing the role of caregiver in real life.

“That’s the reality for a lot of us now,” said Adam Fristoe, co-artistic director of Out of Hand Theater, which commissioned the play.

It’s a reality for lead actress Cook, who serves as a caregiver for her own mother, who has dementia. While some things that ended up in the play happened to Cook, “She’s not me,” she says of Vivienne. “(Yockey) has written a different character.”

And through Vivienne, a topic some people find uncomfortable — Alzheimer’s and other aging-associated maladies — may feel less threatening.

"We have to, as a society, figure out new ways to deal with this," said Cook, winner of the 2013 Suzi Bass award (Atlanta's version of the Tonys) as best lead actress in a play for Horizon Theatre's production of "Time Stands Still." "Art is the way we figure out how to talk about difficult things."

Going in, the intention was for the main character to have Alzheimer’s. But the focus changed during script development workshops that included the actors, Yockey and experts from Emory’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and elsewhere.

"We talked about who is the play really for," said Fristoe, "Blackberry Winter's" director. "To my knowledge, there's been no play done from that caregiver's perspective."

A workshop production is a more modest version of a play that anticipates premiering in final form in the near future. (It’s not clear yet when the play will run in its final form.) These performances won’t feature full costumes or scenery, and the actors will use scripts at times. Audience members are encouraged to stay afterward to offer feedback, share their own stories and question Alzheimer’s experts in attendance.

The playwright makes clear he’ll be listening.

“The talkbacks will be invaluable,” Yockey said via email, adding it’s “extremely rare” for a new play to get to hear from multiple different audiences. “It’s an ideal luxury, and I can’t wait to see how the show evolves.”