Oh My Heart, Oh My Home is a fairy tale of lights and music that enchants for an hour and transports us to another world, almost forgotten, that of a distant past with soft colours and subdued lights.
At the core of Oh My Heart, Oh My Home is a story of returns and memories, where the thirty-year-old Freddie returns to her childhood home to join her grandfather Howard in watching a meteor shower.
While everyone seems occupied with observing the sky, something more intimate and personal disturbs Howard, who mysteriously disappears… Oh My Heart, Oh My Home is a one-woman show that is more than a tale to focus on, accompanied by a moving soundtrack.
Casey Jay Andrews combines wonder with the everyday by reflecting on the passage of time, the value of memory, and the places that make that past still alive, present in our hearts, through symbols, rituals, and sacred sites that never fade away. The micro, that of the dollhouse and Freddie’s small world, merges with the macro, that of the constellations above us, and the meteors that somehow connect above and below, ideas and matter.
Andrews proves to be an expert storyteller, warm and engaging, and the tale is paced perfectly as she switches between modes and paces. She is complemented by well-chosen and technically-accomplished projections and – joining her onstage – Jack Brett’s incidental music and ethereal snatches of song.
But beyond the lyricism of the narrative, told with spirit and mastery, it’s the set design that takes the forefront: the dollhouse, with its scenes of real life that light up and enchant us, making us children again. At its core is the microcosm of the house as a container of memories and recollections, feelings and ways of living, never just an object on its own, but almost humanised, brought to life even by the projected images that show its roots, its very heart.
Oh My Heart, Oh My Home is a journey into the past, sky, and the beauty of our origins, an almost primal tale that moves and cradles us gently.
