The Valley Kerry Sandomirsky Character Analysis

Throughout the play “The Valley” actress Kerry Sandomirsky was playing the role of Sharon who was a single mother trying to deal with her son’s newly diagnosed depression. Although she could not pinpoint it as depression Sharon sensed that her son was struggling with something emotionally when he came back from his first term of university announcing that he had dropped 3 of his courses. She was shocked by this fact because before his first term at university, her son Connor was excited about heading off to university away from home. On top of that, Connor was always a smart student with outstanding grades and a creative mind. Connor’s depression really hit her hard when he had a mental breakdown on a sky train and had to get arrested by the
police. Sandomirsky played her character as shocked but worried when her character heard the news about her son, especially after she found out that Connor broke his jaw and had to get surgery from the arrest. Sharon was acted as furious after the arrest to the policeman for she thought he was the one that broke her son’s jaw. On the other hand, Sharon was acted as kind and caring in front of her son when he wouldn’t leave his room after his encounter with the police. To her, the thought that the police treated her son as a dangerous criminal was outrageous and it was her son that was harmed from the experience. The character of Sharon was then put on her own emotional journey as she had to realize that her son could not go back to normal as quickly as she would like and that she had to forgive the policeman who arrested her son as he was only doing his job. The play ends with Sharon accepting the policeman and supporting her son with his actions. To me, I found the acting of Kerry Sandomirsky spectacular.
I found that she portrayed a person who has a loved one suffering from a mental illness very well. The change of emotion from before and after her son’s mental breakdown was very accurately portrayed. Her expression of worry when Connor told her he dropped three of his classes was like a face most mothers would make, angry but worried there is something wrong with her child. I was also impressed with the acting of Sandomirsky speaking to the policeman after the arrest. Although it may have been viewed as overreacting to others, I found that the anger she had towards the policeman about her son’s broken jaw was reasonable as she didn’t know the back story at that time. I thought that any mother would be furious to find out her son was treated as a dangerous criminal and injured by the police only when he was going through something emotionally on his own. Finally, I found the interactions between Sharon and Connor after the police incident very realistic as well. Both actors did a terrific job portraying the role of a depressed son and a mother trying to help him. Sandomirsky’s acting of being overly cheerful to Connor while trying to mask her concern for him seemed like actions a mother would do to her depressed son. In conclusion, I found the acting of Kerry Sandomirsky as her role of Sharon to be very well done and showed a realistic scenario of a mother whose child is going through
depression.