Theater review: Janus Theatre revives Marsha Norman's shattering ''Night, Mother'
“'Night, Mother” - ★ ★ ½
It's a typical Saturday night for the widowed Thelma Cates and her divorced daughter Jessie, the characters in Marsha Norman's gut-wrenching two-hander “'Night, Mother,” which Janus Theatre has revived as part of Underplayed: The Margo Jones Theater Project.
A monthlong salute to pioneering director/producer Jones, who in 1947 founded the regional theater movement, Underplayed consists of three plays written and directed by women. “'Night, Mother,” the weightiest of the three, runs in repertory with Annie Baker's “Circle Mirror Transformation” and Theresa Rebeck's “Sunday on the Rocks” through Nov. 4 at the Elgin theater.
“'Night, Mother” begins in a tidy but unremarkable home, in an unnamed state, as the garrulous Thelma (Maureen Morley) munches on sweets while she awaits the weekly manicure her daughter has promised. The ever-efficient Jessie (Leah Soderstrom) tidies up and refills candy jars, purposefully getting her mother's house in order.
It's all perfectly ordinary until Jessie announces, moments after the play begins, that she intends to kill herself later that evening.
Jessie has found her life a disappointment - from her decadeslong battle with epilepsy resulting in intermittent employment to a failed marriage that produced a thieving, drug-addicted son.
The relationship she has with Thelma is solid. Their financial situation is sound. Medication helps control Jessie's seizures. But she is tired. She's hurt. She's sad. And, she says, she's had enough. What's so unnerving about Jessie's revelation is how she delivers it: impassively and without self-pity. What's so disquieting is how utterly prosaic it feels - something the ending of a life should never be.
Jessie spends the evening checking items off her to-do list: reminding her mother when to put the garbage out and about the local market's delivery policy. Meanwhile, the initially disbelieving and increasingly frightened Thelma alternately cajoles, implores and threatens her daughter to change her mind. But Jessie is unwavering.
The sense that time is ticking away forces mother and daughter to communicate on a level they never have before. Yet there is nothing mawkish about Norman's 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, whose absence of sentimentality makes it even more shattering.
Credit director Lori Holm, who ably conveys a quotidian sensibility while also teasing out the play's understated humor.
The lighting design, however, was ill-defined, particularly that which was presumably meant to convey a memory. Sloppy lighting cues on opening night did not help. The acting, at least initially, felt tentative, and Soderstrom, a recent Illinois State University graduate, is too young to play a woman the script describes as in her late 30s or early 40s.
That said, she and Morley (whose performance suggests a woman cycling through the stages of grief) eventually settle into their roles. And when they do, “'Night, Mother” is quite moving.
“How could I know you were so alone?” cries Thelma helplessly through a locked door.
How can anyone?
If you or someone you know struggles with thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24 hours a day at (800) 273-8255.
Location: Janus Theatre, at the Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., Elgin, janusplays.com
Shows: “'Night, Mother” runs Oct. 21 and 27; “Circle Mirror Transformation” runs Oct. 18, 19, 27 and Nov. 2 and 4; “Sunday on the Rocks” runs Oct. 26, 27, 28 and Nov. 1 and 3
Running time: About 80 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $18, $35 for a three-show pass
Parking: Free municipal lot and street parking available
Rating: For adults; contains mature subject matter