[NEohioPAL] 'Night, Mother review (actually written by a local person!)

[Zoldessy, Brian]

''night Mother' at Tri-C explores family, truth, life decisions

Published: Friday, October 21, 2011, 7:08 AM 

By Marjorie Preston, Sun News
<http://connect.cleveland.com/user/marjoriepreston/index.html> Sun News 



 

The Cuyahoga Community College Eastern Campus Theatre Arts Department
production of "'Night, Mother" by Marsha Norman at the Tri-C East Studio
Theatre is a compelling family drama featuring two capable Cleveland
actresses. 

It tackles some of the challenging topics we face like family, truth,
and life decisions. 

 

Aging widow Thelma Cates (Joy Borland) lives with her adult daughter and
caretaker, Jessie Cates (Bernadette Clemens), an epileptic divorcee with
no driver's license and no real outside interests. The two of them have
lived an apparently symbiotic relationship for years until the day we
meet them - the day that Jessie announces she is going to kill herself. 

Clemens, as the mostly quiet, caretaker daughter, rides a roller coaster
between clinically explaining that she has simply decided to get off the
bus a few stops early ("It's my stop. I've had enough"), dishing on the
neighbors, and clearing the air about old family secrets. 

When her anger bubbles to the surface about 40 minutes in, it's a
clearing of the air, except for the mess it leaves behind. Clemens's
honesty is refreshing while we feel her pain. 

Borland, as the wistful mom receiving instructions on where the
mousetraps are and how to clean the dryer's lint trap, grasps at straws
("You'll blow your ear off") and suggests her daughter perhaps take up
shopping or rearrange the furniture instead. 

Borland's desperation and bargaining in her daughter's final moments is
truly heartbreaking. 

Director Brian Zoldessy has cast two strong actresses in the roles. It
is hard to see the beautiful Clemens as an unappreciated ex-wife with
low self-esteem, but she transmits acutely the depth of her sadness, as
her life revolves around her mother and she doesn't have any hobbies or
passions in the world. 

Borland is wonderfully suited for her role, though she appears young for
it. Her character claims to only have a few years to live and forgets
which medications to take, but the role does call for physically
demanding moments of anger punctuated by tossing down items, so he has
found a very capable actress in Borland. 

Set designer Ben Needham has created yet another tasteful, lovely set,
both familiar as a cozy, dusty rose-colored living area and yet
strikingly similar to Japanese screens with stark black outlines.
Several wall panels have the appearance of seeming to crack apart as
black shadows like tree branches blot them in perfect metaphor of the
hairline cracks that have always existed in the family structure. 

The play may have lost some of its shock value since it won Marsha
Norman the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, but "'Night, Mother" remains
an outstanding piece of theater. Some audience members may be reminded
of the Who lyric: "Hope I die before I get old," as we question the
seemingly immovable truth that living a long life is admired and
desired. 

And some will be reminded that life is short, and that we ought to reach
out to those we love while we have a chance. 

Either way, this quiet, intelligently-written tragedy will have you
riveted. 

"'Night, Mother" plays through October 23, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.
and Sunday, October 23 at 2 p.m. Free parking is available in the B lot
during performances. 

For tickets or more information, call (216) 987-2438 or visit 
www.tri-c.edu/easttheatre. <http://www.tri-c.edu/easttheatre>  

A gun is shown and there are loud noises and adult themes in the
production. 

 

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