Twin Cities couple stages autobiographical play about stroke

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(FOX 9)

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) - The lines are all memorized and the lighting and technical staging is in its final rehearsals. But when the audience starts filing into Illusion Theater this weekend they will experience a script that’s been five years in the making and written with real-life experience.

Playwright Carlyle Brown and his wife Barbara Joyce-Rose Brown didn’t have to go very far to find the inspiration for their latest work simply called A Play by Barb and Carl.

"A play by Barb and Carl is a play based on the experience with my wife and her episodes with a stroke," said Carlyle.

The couple are much more than just husband and wife, they’ve been a collaborative artistic force in theater production.  As a playwright, Carlyle would conceive the storylines and dialogue. Meanwhile, Barbara, as an accomplished dramaturg would edit the script to make the ideas come alive on the stage.

But when Barbara suffered a stroke in 2017 it was like the stage lights and soundboard losing power in the middle of a performance.

"She had aphasia and lost her ability to speak," recalled Carlyle.  "And that was kind of devastating."

It immediately thrust Carlyle into the role of caregiver to Barbara.  But as an artistic couple, they found a unique way of adapting.

"We wanted to communicate beyond basic needs," Carlyle explained.  "We had at our disposal an art form.  So we decided to write these scenes to communicate to each other."

They would communicate back and forth in written dialogue with Carlyle asking Barb what she was seeing, what was happening. 

"And that turned out to be like a sort of series of benchmarks, and it was written in the form of a play in which she knew how to critique and we knew enough of each other where it became a kind of collaboration," said Caryle.  "We had at our disposal, our art form as a way to communicate."

Eventually, they realized that the dialogue of their changing lives and their support for one another was actually a play in the making based upon their experiences.

The play opens with Barb, played by Kimberly Richardson, sitting in a wheelchair with Carlyle, played by JoeNathan Thomas sitting at her side.  The audience is immediately immersed into the plot with the opening line, "My name is Barb, I had a stroke."

"What I admire most is the honesty to it," said Brad Donaldson of the Minnesota Stroke Association.  "It’s a play about an individual who’s dealt with a stroke, the caregiving side, but mainly it’s about the relationship between the two. The love, the understanding, the journey, the fear, the discovery.  It’s the truth."

The play is designed to teach audiences about the challenges of stroke from both the survivor’s point of view and the caregiver.  Illusion Theater has invited the Minnesota Stroke Association to each performance to answer questions the audience may have.

"Any awareness that helps spread the word about stroke, about how stroke can happen and what to do when it happens truly creates a better outcome for so many people," said Donaldson.

As the actors and technical crew put together the finishing touches this week, they know that this show is more than just a script.

"I think it’s a good story," said Carlyle of the final product.

But he also knows that his work is done and that the play doesn’t belong to him anymore.  It now belongs to the actors and the audience to make it their own.

"People seem to see themselves in the play in this story," said Carlyle.  "And that’s really gratifying because I think if you succeed in a good story, people will be like, hey, I really like that play. And then they tell you their own story. Then maybe you got something right."

A Play by Barb and Carl opens Friday night, April 8 and runs through April 30 at Illusion Theater inside the Center for the Performing Arts at 3754 Pleasant Avenue in Minneapolis.  Tickets can be purchased at www.illusiontheater.org.