IN REVIEW

 Summer Stage kicks off with serious theater; ‘night Mother

 

BY C.S. GILBERT

 

When Bob Bowersox brought Theatre XP and Key West Summer Stage to town three or four years ago, he promised serious theater. Thought-provoking theater. Dark theater. With this summer’s debut show, which opened at the Red Barn on July 1, he has kept that promise in spades.

Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama ‘night Mother is a play about suicide. It is the antithesis of fluffy summer fare, the stuff designed for an entertaining evening at the theater and offered by (unless things have changed radically in the last 20 years) the majority of summer stock companies in the nation, probably the universe. This is a stunning, beautifully crafted and totally sobering view of mother-child relationships, disability, lives worth living (or not) and choices.

I am distressed — perhaps a better word is moved — by it now as much as I was when I first saw it, when I was close to the age of the daughter, Jessie. I am, however, considerably less terrified. With grown children of my own now, my heart breaks for Thelma, the mother. For all who value truly fine drama and who dare to have their souls shaken a bit, this production is for you.

Even viewing the show six days before opening (“And remember, six days out is a lifetime in theater time,” declared director Rebecca Tomlinson, unnecessarily, prior to the formal tech run and during an early costumed run-through when the actors soldiered on unfazed through a couple of blackouts due, one assumes, to fuse issues in RJ Conn’s lighting — he bolted from the house and the lights quickly reappeared), it was abundantly clear that Summer Stage has presented an evening of truly kick-ass theater.

Tomlinson’s direction is just about flawless. Having admired her work in many spheres for many years, I cannot help but suspect that her talents are not quite of this ordinary, earthly realm. Bowersox’s set is perfect. And Annie Miners’ trifecta as set dresser/propmaster, stage manager and assistant director is really heroic.

But it is, of course, on the shoulders of the actors to communicate the emotions of the drama — or not. Connie Hurst as Thelma and Susannah Wells as Jessie are both flat-out amazing. Thelma is full of assertions worth consideration: “Things don’t have to be true to talk about them” and “I don’t like things to think about, I like things that go on.” Jessie clearly communicates the pain of living with disabilities, physical and emotional, and confesses that her husband left her because “I had to choose between him and smoking.” (Remember, the play is set in the early 1980s.)

Hurst’s anger flares so high that it’s frightening, and Wells’ cool determination terrifies as well. Their performances in rehearsal were chilling; I can only imagine how powerful those performances will be during the run of the show — which only lasts, incidentally, through Sunday, July 6.

See it. Then go somewhere and have a stiff drink or a cup of coffee and talk about it with the people you love.

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