
The Arts Club Theatre Company presents Burning Mom at the Granville Island Stage to April 24
Every single human will likely experience the loss of a loved one in their lifetime. Despite knowing this, we all want to find love and be loved. It’s a human need.
Burning Mom is the true story of Dorothy, a mother of three adult children: Mieko, Jason, and Kevin. Their father, her husband Eugene, has recently passed away.
I am currently the same age as the character Dorothy, but I lost my partner, Michael, in 2008 at a much younger age. Healing after the loss of a person is difficult; you will always grieve in some form, but you also move on to build a new life.
Dorothy was grieving, but she wasn’t going to wallow in it; she wanted to have new experiences. The theme of “life is short” is prevalent throughout. She was determined to honour her husband’s memory by taking a trip in the RV they had just bought and going to Burning Man, as he had talked about going “one day.”
This was a more challenging play to pull off as Dorothy was the only character, and all the dialogue came from her. She was engaging, funny, self-deprecating, a mom, a woman and a grieving widow. The dialogue was descriptive and well written. The personalities of each of Dorothy’s three children are revealed as she speaks to us. Dorothy talks about Eugene, and you quickly learn that theirs was a loving marriage, a partnership of best friends. Dorothy talked about how she and Eugene met, the differences in their personalities, and how he was “her person.”
Susinn McFarlen brilliantly played Dorothy. Not an easy feat to be the only character in a play, but Ms. McFarlen did a stellar job. Every movement she made on stage had a purpose, steering the story along.
Playwright Mieko Ouchi, Dorothy’s daughter, wrote a touching and poignant story of her mother’s grief over the loss of her father. The play was filled with personal stories, vivid descriptions of many memories, witty and funny dialogue, as the audience and I burst into laughter several times throughout. We came to feel for Dorothy and genuinely cheered her on. She has gumption and moxie. She is a practical and strong woman. She acknowledges the immense pain of her loss, but she is determined to embrace the new version of her life.
This play is set in Calgary, Alberta, as it features numerous references to streets and businesses in the area. It could be adapted to any city anywhere in North America and work.
I loved the set design; the RV was the only’ other character” on set and was cleverly used to illustrate various events as they unfolded. We also met Dazzle, who was described by Dorothy in great detail and didn’t fail to disappoint. Set Designer Patrick Rizotti and Assistant Set Designer Ana Camch outdid themselves..
I don’t believe the play would have succeeded in conveying its message as effectively if there had been other actors. It was Dorothy’s story, her grief, her life, and her hopes and dreams that would move forward. Her youngest son accompanies her on this road trip, but you don’t see him or his friend who tags along. Dorothy brings them to life as she shares the conversations she had with both of them.
Burning Man is the perfect destination for Dorothy, as she and her deceased husband, Eugene, were both artists. It is an event that celebrates community, art, self-expression and self-reliance. Dorothy needs her community now, more than ever, and she is an artist. Talking about her feelings, expressing her grief and knowing she can rely on herself as she begins this new chapter of her life. Experiencing Burning Man was a way for Dorothy to grieve and heal.
Despite her grief, which we get glimpses of in parts of her dialogue, Dorothy is easily encouraged and is no quitter. She is determined and more resilient than she realizes. I wish that she shared more of her grief in the first part of the play, before the intermission. But I more than understand the timing. Talking about the loss, admit to yourself that it’s true, that it happened. The pain of loss is a tough one to deal with. The audience knows she has lost her husband, but she didn’t elaborate much as to how she was feeling until later in the play.
Play run time was 2 hours and 15 minutes, including a 20-minute intermission. Burning Mom runs until April 24, 2025, at the Arts Club, Granville Island Stage.
Interview with Mieko Ouchi
Q: This is a deeply personal story. Why a play and not a memoir?
A: “I am also a filmmaker. At the time that my mom was planning her road trip to Burning Man with my brother, I was writing a play. I contemplated going to Burning Man with her to make a documentary, but then I realized that no one attending Burning Man wanted to have any of it documented.”
Q: What happens at Burning Man stays at Burning Man.
A: “I gave it additional thought and decided that a play might be the best way to share this story. The inner voice is with one person.”
Q: How did your Mom feel about you telling her story?
A: “She was fine with the story being shared. She had already shared her story with her grief support group. The group consisted of others who had lost their partners. She was asked to share her story many times. Many people responded with ‘You went to Burning Man?’ My mom was very generous and believed that if her story could help people, she wanted to share it.”
I noted that it was likely helpful that her mom is Caucasian; if her mom were Japanese or Asian, she might not have been as forthcoming as she was in sharing this very personal story. Culturally, she would not have felt comfortable sharing such an individual aspect of herself.
Q: How did writing this play help you with your grief?
A: “It helped so very much. It made me realize that I was part of this ‘grief club’, not a club that anyone wants to be part of. But I was not alone, nor was I the first person, nor the last. Kinship in that human experience.”
Q: You only touch upon the aspects of Dorothy’s grief in the first part of the play. Why did you choose to focus on her grief mostly in the last part of the play?
A: “My mom was so devastated, she had so many dark days. Not that she didn’t want to talk about it. Not that they didn’t want to talk about Dad. It took a long time, as it was so painful. Our grief counsellor said it was like we were frozen, and it took time to talk about Dad with the joyful memories and not the sad final moments.
What I wanted to capture in the play was “What comes next…and not just the grief. This is the more interesting part of the journey.”
Q: Do you plan to write another play that is this personal?
A: “I have already written some other plays that were quite personal and about my family. The Japanese internment. ‘By This Parting’ is the story of my aunt who was interned in New Denver, BC. Our family owned a boarding house on Powell Street in Vancouver.”
Q: What effect did this play have on your family after seeing it for the first time? Your Mom, each of your siblings?
A: “They were sad and happy to see the play. Mom said “Holy crap, I cannot believe my RV is on stage!
It is important to write stories and to share people’s lives. The success of the play has been really exciting.”
Q: What is next for you?
A: “Burning Mom is going to be in more cities…it’s going on the road. It will be staged at the Citadel Theatre for three weeks, and I will be directing.”
“I have been working on my first novel for a while. It is an adaptation of one of my plays, ‘Nisei Blue’, a film noir detective story set in 1939.”
Meiko Ouchi is a Canadian actress, writer, director, dramaturg and playwright. She is currently the Artistic Director at Citadel Theatre. This Arts Club production of Burning Mom, featuring Susinn McFarlen, will tour the Lower Mainland in January 2026, before travelling to the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton for a three-week run starting February 14, 2026.
Cynda Yeasting is the eldest of a family of five, born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to a Pioneer Chinese family. She is a second-generation Vancouverite. Although she is adventurous and has been fortunate enough to travel to some incredible places in the world, Vancouver is where her heart is most content.
“Burning Mom”, the play, is published by Playwrights Canada Press, a Canadian publisher, and can be purchased from their website https://www.playwrightscanada.com/Books/B/Burning-Mom or Indigo, Burning Mom Book By Mieko Ouchi, (Paperback) | Indigo, as well as Amazon.ca and other booksellers.