With true grace and elegance, An Audience of Chairs mesmerizes even as it breaks your beating heart.

This portrait of mental illness — adapted from the Joan Clark novel — is a testament to the vision and strength of director Deanne Foley.

It follows Maura Mackenzie, a talented concert pianist and devoted mother who begins to buckle under the pressures of daily life with her two young daughters in Newfoundland.

With an absentee husband, her concerned father checking in and her own inability to see the shift in her mental capacity, one mistake changes her entire existence.

Carolina Bartczak is incredible as a mother fighting herself for control of her life. She’s fearless, vulnerable, and practically flawless in this bravura performance.

With top-notch performances and a script that errs as far away from the melodramatic as possible, viewers will be given a grounded, adult drama and complex characters to get lost in.

Foley has created a fantastic feature, and one I won’t soon forget.

4/5 Stars

deserves in this incredible work from director