Mother Lear, the film - 2024

"...that way madness lies" - King Lear

An irascible Shakespeare scholar with early onset dementia communicates with her caretaker daughter using the only language available to her, the text of King Lear, as the two struggle with aging, love, and their own balance of power.

the film

In 2017, Ava Roy, founding Artistic Director of We Players, and actress Courtney Walsh created a two-woman theatrical piece about an aging mother and her caretaker daughter, plumbing the depths of Shakespeare’s language to explore the themes of family, aging, pride, control, and mortality. Following its premiere in 2017, Mother Lear earned Outstanding Performance awards for both Walsh and Roy from Theater Bay Area.

In Mother Lear, a formerly brilliant Shakespeare scholar descending into dementia communicates only through the remembered text of King Lear. “Lear” (Walsh) is determined to end her life on her own terms as her grip on reality succumbs to her imagined identity as King Lear. Discovering her mother surrounded by treasured possessions and an ominous bottle of pills, “Cordelia” (Roy) must try to reach her mother through the only language she recognizes. Donning a variety of personas from Shakespeare’s play, from the loyal friend Kent, to the manipulative daughter Goneril, to the irreverent Fool, Cordelia engages her mother in the difficult conversations they had never managed to negotiate prior to her illness. Through this artificial construct, they achieve authentic communication. Audiences re-discover the magic of the Bard’s gift for expression, as two relatable modern characters find that Shakespeare’s words exceed their own in exploring difficult subjects like regret and death. At the same time, affection and intimacy blossom with Shakespeare’s humor and lyricism.

Walsh and Roy spent months developing the original theatrical piece through research and improvisation, including interviews with care providers and over 100 hours that Walsh spent observing and interacting with people with dementia. Now Mother Lear has been translated into a film, in the hopes of sharing the experience with a wider audience, expanding the conversation around dementia care and sharing the power of art to help us navigate the challenges of being human. For more information about the Mother Lear film, please contact producer Courtney Walsh at motherlearfilm@gmail.com.

The Artists

Courtney Walsh

Actor, Co-Writer, Co-Director, Producer of Mother Lear

Courtney Walsh earned a B.A. in Theater Studies at Yale University and began acting professionally in Los Angeles. During an acting hiatus, she earned a law degree to represent children in child abuse cases, returning to the stage in 2006. Since then, she has appeared on national and international stages, both in English and French (including Berlin, Amsterdam, Paris, Montpellier, Cardiff, Athens, Corfu, Sydney, and Auckland). Bay Area credits include American Conservatory Theater (The Wizard of Oz), San Francisco Playhouse (Clue, Jerusalem, Seared); The Marsh (Susan Sontag: The Smartest Woman in America); Marin Theater Company (Native Son); Cutting Ball Theater (Timon of Athens, Phèdre); We Players (Romeo and Juliet, Mother Lear); New Conservatory Theater Center (Dear Harvey), and many others. For Moby Dick – Rehearsed at Stanford Repertory Theater (where she was a core company member for twelve years) she won Theater Bay Area Awards for Outstanding Production, Directing and Acting Ensemble. Her solo show Clytemnestra: Tangled Justice has toured eight countries over three continents. Courtney has taught numerous workshops in the U.S. and abroad, a CSP Drama course at Stanford University for four years, and an adult course called The View from the Stage: Theater History through the Actor’s Lens. She is also a mother of four, a dancer, and a lifelong equestrienne. In 2024 she will appear at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in Mother Road. Find her at courtneywalsh.net

Ava Roy

Actor, Co-Writer, Co-Director of Mother Lear

Ava Roy is the Founding Artistic Director of We Players, the Bay Area’s premiere site-integrated theatre company. Her unique style of dynamic, site-integrated performance aims to highlight the historical and natural treasures of the local landscape and encourage new ways of appreciating these places. Ava is an alumna of Stanford University where she earned her BA in a self-designed major: Ritual and Performance in Aesthetic Education, 2003. Since 2008, she has pioneered unique partnerships with the National Park Service, the California State Park system, San Francisco Recreation and Parks, and other municipal and regional park sites, creating spectacular immersive performances throughout the Bay Area and beyond. Ava is an actor, director, and educator. Inspired and guided by Shakespeare since her teenage years, she has explored many characters from the canon, ranging from Juliet to Henry V, Mercutio to Lady Macbeth. In addition to playing Shakespeare, she creates original works as well as new works adapted from classical texts. As an educator, she co-teaches a course at California College of the Arts centered in embodied and sensory based modes of inquiry and expression and leads specialized yoga classes at the SF Opera Center, SF Conservatory of Music, as well as online in her digital shala. She draws inspiration and delight from the natural world, especially the big blue ocean and the miniature worlds of moss.

Peter Ruocco

Co-Director, Director of Photography, Editor of Mother Lear

Peter Ruocco is an Emmy Award winning filmmaker based in the SF Bay Area. Originally from Buffalo, New York, he did his undergraduate work in Theatre at the University of Alaska and received an MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of Hawaii. His background as a theatre performer and director laid the foundation for his transition to working behind the camera. Over the past 10 years he has directed, shot and edited short and long form narratives, documentaries, TV shows and commercials. His work has been featured on KQED, NPR, PBS and film festivals throughout the USA. In 2021 he was Director of Photography and Editor for the film adaptation of Lauren Gunderson’s one-person show The Catastrophist. He recently served Director of Photography for the PBS travel show 100 Days, Drinks, Dishes and Destinations and is currently a cinematographer for Check Please Bay Area.