By David Ly
How Has My Love Affected You?, the most recent production on the Arts Club’s Revue Stage, is a personal account of the incredibly tumultuous relationship between Marcus Youssef and his mother, Roleene Youssef. Alongside Marcus’s 17-year-old son, Zac Youssef — the father-son act puts on a brave, personal performance.
When Marcus approached Zac with the idea of a play about his grandmother, Zac was originally not too enthusiastic about it, questioning the topic’s appropriateness in the public eye. However, being a musician, Zac began composing original songs with local singer-songwriter Veda Hill, with actual excerpts from Roleene’s journals. In creating original music for the play, Zac eventually became more comfortable with the production.
Despite his initial weariness, Zac felt more in his element with the piano at his fingertips, which is evident on stage: Marcus says that Zac is a musician first and actor second, only having a small amount of acting experience. Zac’s passion for music is evident in every word he sings from his grandmother’s writing collection, even the short one-liners from her vast collection of post-it notes.
Marcus says that, as an actor, “The ‘real’ feels more authentic, while older conventions [of theater] are too obvious.” This sentiment is self-evident in this production, as the style and setting are remarkable: as he speaks, actual photographs from his childhood with Roleene are projected onto mountains of boxes. The entire stage suffocates under these boxes and mounds of dusty journals from his mother’s storage unit.
In tandem with Marcus’ story-telling, the audience comes to truly understand the strenuous relationship he has with his mother, contributing to the authentic emotions experienced while watching the play.
Yet there are moments when the acting makes it too obvious that this is happening on stage; the result is a disconnection from the story. As it is a family memoir, it’s understandable that the audience is expected to feel sadness, pity, and relief for the performers, but it comes off as heavy-handed.
Surprisingly, these moments came mostly when Marcus and Zac are interacting directly with each other. One would expect closeness to inspire naturalism; however, this is not the case. To make matters worse, the delivery of some quickly-paced lines became a bit muddled with the live music.
The play focuses on a touchy subject: mental illness and how it affects family dynamics. If you can get past some poorly delivered lines, the attractive stage design and play as a whole comes together to create a wonderful message.
How Has My Love Affected You? is a brave production, although at times the acting is rusty. It’s honest, tumultuous, and complicated, but its message is clear: in the words of Marcus, “[Loving support is] what families are for.” It’s clear that he is entirely sincere.
