How to bake an apple pie

As told by Miriam in Jennifer Fawcett’s Apples in Winter, directed by Robert Ross Parker

Step 1: Prep the crust. Requires: Flour, Sugar, Salt, Butter.

The lights snap on to a harsh, sterile kitchen. This is clearly not Miriam’s kitchen at home; the steel surfaces and total lack of personality betray it as somewhere cold and purely functional. There are various containers, labelled with painters tape, on the table, and all of the tools required to bake a pie: a rolling pin, cutting board, apron, and a knife. But the knife is blunt and attached to the table with a not-quite-long-enough tether. Darren Burkett’s design makes it become clear within moments, if it wasn’t already from the buzz which sounds as the lights flick on, that we’re in the kitchen of a jail.

Burkett’s set is also unique in a functional way; there’s a real oven and fridge on stage, both of which work and are actively used throughout the production. You can hear the oven getting hot once Miriam pre-heats it, and you can feel the warmth emanating from the open door as she checks on the pie. The smells which permeate the space, of the spices and baking pastry, make your mouth water in anticipation of the delicious dessert which lurks within.

Step 2: Prep the pie filling. Requires: Freshly picked apples, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Sugar.

Apples in Winter is a stunning solo-show where Miriam has been asked to bake a pie for her son, Robert. He’s on death row, and he’s requested a slice of his mother’s apple pie for his last meal. Unfortunately, this means that Miriam has to go to the penitentiary to bake the pie, lest she try to slip something into it at home. Over the course of making the pie, Miriam talks about Robert’s growing up, her own childhood, and how she started making pies. Throughout, we get more information about how Robert ended up in prison, and what it’s been like for Miriam while on the outside. From the media camping on her lawn to hate letters from total strangers, Miriam’s life was also irrevocably changed on that night in 2010.

Step 3: Assemble the pie. Requires: the crust which has been chilled, pie filling.

Birgitte Solem is a compelling Miriam; she takes us on an emotionally charged journey with her character from the moments those lights flick on, to the final buzz of her timer. With every glance at the clock, I wanted to console her; you know why she’s looking and how little anyone can do about it. Solem peels away the layers of these characters’ lives like the layers of the pie she’s creating, revealing a little more of Miriam’s true feelings about Robert as the time ticks on. Solem’s performance tugs at the heartstrings and brings tears to your eyes; whether you’re a parent yourself or are thinking about your own parents, there’s no way to not be moved by this performance.

Step 4: Bake the pie. Requires: patience and love.

Fawcett has factored in several moments of profound silence into Apples in Winter. These moments shake you, the silence is deafening and the sense of dread Miriam feels easily spreads out into the audience. Once you know why she’s there, every pause, every breath, every check of the clock means more. The silence mid-way through the play, the longest and most heartrending, signifies a shift in the text as well: suddenly Miriam’s rose-coloured glasses are starting to fade, and we’re able to learn more of the truth about not only her son and what happened that night, but also about Miriam’s true feelings on the subject. These revelations are hinted at earlier in the text, and yet there’s something about her admitting them out loud that carries an immense weight which reverberates through the room. The play itself is almost like a sonnet, with the voltas occurring during these moments of stillness, setting Miriam’s thoughts on a new course.

“I’m done. I’m done”

Those final words are both a statement and a promise, a boundary being set and a heart breaking. She’s done her pie and therefore done as a mother, as a caregiver, as a pie maker. Apples in Winter is a moving testament to the power of parental love; even under the most difficult circumstances imaginable, her son needs her, and so Miriam will bake him a pie. Her love is baked into every bite, and we know he’ll close his eyes, as he’s always done, to savour it.

Apples in Winter runs at Here For Now Theatre until August 31. For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.herefornowtheatre.com/applesinwinter

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You can listen to my interview with Birgitte Solem and Robert Ross Parker here: https://aviewfromthebox.net/a-view-from-the-box-the-podcast/

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Cover Photo: Birgitte Solem. Photo by Ann Baggley.

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