PicksInSix Review: 'night, Mother
Grief Cries Out In The Darkness
Exposing the raw, unsettling and complicated nature of mental illness and its impact, “ ’night, Mother,” the 1983 Pulitzer-prize-winning play by Marsha Norman, speaks even more directly to our isolated culture today than ever before. Even as the conversation between Thelma and her epileptic daughter Jessie begins as any typical night at home, it pivots sharply early on, lifting a shroud on their painful and guilt-filled lives.
In a live staging of this searing and deeply troubling drama that plays out in one room over 90 minutes, the critical distance of the two actors is compressed into a series of confrontations after Jessie announces that she will end her own life that night. As Jesse dutifully makes a checklist for after she is gone, Thelma tries to cope with the mounting anguish of what is to come.
Invictus Theatre Company’s online version of the play, directed by Diane Sintich and presented live, embarks on a new compelling path — one that leads beyond the disturbing and inevitable conclusion, and on to the beginning of a sorting-out of the most direct of all questions: “Why?”
Norman’s heart-wrenching story will require considerable time to process. The conversation between Thelma (Tekeisha Yelton-Hunter) and Jessie (Courtney Gardner) plays out in real time, appearing at times to be seeping out of the trapped and grief-stricken mind of the survivor after the fact — an endless replaying of shared experiences, actions and thoughts, conscious and otherwise — in search of answers to the other questions: Is there anything I could have done differently? How could this be happening? What will we do now?
Both Yelton-Hunter and Gardner expertly navigate the virtual challenges of the medium to deliver poignant performances. Gardner’s empathy, mixed with the single-minded enthusiasm of a person who is preparing for a vacation from which she will never return, is in sharp contrast to Yelton-Hunter’s pragmatic efforts to understand the true relationship between a mother and her daughter.
Guilt, grief and anger remain in the lives of family members touched by mental illness that leads to suicide. Mental health professionals, trained to recognize and treat patients, are only able to do their job through early detection. All too often, those services are available only to family members and survivors, so it is vitally important to know the signs, have the conversation and seek out help for those dealing with the crippling effects of depression and grief.
Invictus Theatre Company
presents
’night, Mother
Directed by Diane Sintich
Online virtual live performance
Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m.
Sundays at 3 .pm.
through November 8
10% of all ticket sales will be donated to Sista Afya Community Care.
TICKETS
For more reviews, visit: Theatre In Chicago