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'night, Mother (2014)

Creator

Theatre Arts

Preview

Creation Date

2014

Description

Playwright: Marsha Norman

Director: Rachael Sapp

Set Design: Grace Munoz

Costume Design: Karen Eisenhour

Photographs/Program/Reviews: Available Here

Plot Synopsis

“The things we as women know best,” Norman has explained, “have not been perceived to be of critical value to society.” The mother-daughter relationship is a “perfect example of that.” At the play’s outset, the middle-aged Jessie announces to her mother, Thelma, that she is going to kill herself. Norman has described the ninety minutes that follow as “the fight of their lives.” Thelma exhorts, cajoles, and pleads with Jessie to abandon her plan. Jessie remains implacable. She feels trapped in the house she and Thelma share. Her husband has abandoned her; her son is a delinquent. She blames her epileptic fits for her failings as a wife and mother and for her inability to hold a job. She also blames the epilepsy—considered emblematic by critics of the plight as a woman in society—for rendering her unconscious and out of control, to be handled and observed by others. -enotes