On 2009-01-19 Kevin L. Nenstiel, Kearney, Nebraska wrote: Convinced she has no control over her own life, Jessie Cates resolves to end it. But this is not an impulse decision. She has spent months carefully laying the groundwork so that when she is gone, her needy mother Thelma will be able to carry on. Now nothing is left but to make sure Mama is aware of what´s going down so she can prepare herself for when it happens.
Since its first production in 1983, this play has ascended to the ranks of theatrical classics for its almost operatic language, its intimate one-on-one tension, and its shocking denouement. The most stunning surprise in this one-act is its lack of surprise. The crisis point is already past when the play begins; what we´re left with isn´t conflict so much as conflagration.
As tensions run high, Jessie and Thelma lock themselves into a downward spiral of emotional revelation and high-strung confrontation. Personal disclosures come out with a degree of quiet honesty that many current histrionic playwrights would shy from like a branding iron. And Jessie proves to be one of the most strong-willed characters in theatre for the last generation.
Though remarkably short, this play is extremely compact. Not one word is wasted. And despite the dense subtext, the refreshingly direct language makes a break from all the recent plays that need to be decoded to be understood. This DPS edition includes updates the author made for the 2004 Broadway revival, bringing some of the dated language into the 21st Century.
This play plows a field so unique that subsequent playwrights have fled from this level of stunning lucidity. There is precious little else quite like it in the current theatrical scene. Terse, candid, and powerful, ´´Night, Mother´ casts a shadow on every writer currently working.. And summed up by saying Terse, Direct, and Chilling. Currently Night Mother has an overall rating of 10 over 10.
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Sharon Gless claimed ´night, Mother is a taut and fluid drama that addresses different emotions and special relations. By one of America´s most talented playwrights, this play won the Dramatists Guild´s prestigious Hull-Warriner Award, four Tony nominations, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize in 1983. ´night, Mother had its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in December 1982. It opened on Broadway in March 1983, directed by Tom Moore and starring Anne Pitoniak and Kathy Bates; a film, starring Anne Bancroft and Sissy Spacek, was released in 1986.
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