Theater Reviews

Oct 13, 2004 - "'Night Mother" at the Bruka Theatre isn't much fun, but it is moving and powerful

By Jack Neal

"Night Mother," Marsha Norman's searingly powerful play, is being given the sensitive presentation it must have to work as something that's real, and not little more than a maudlin slice of life. A revealing presentation of Norman's revealing play is at Reno's Bruka Theatre. It's a production anyone interested in fine theater should experience.

Plays about suicide, such as "'night Mother," aren't for the weak of heart. Be forewarned, suicide and wounded hearts through the sadness of failed relationships is what Norman's play is about. It's astonishingly on target where blood ties are concerned and because it is, it's touching and moving as few plays or films are.

Although few families are as dysfunctional as the one inhabited by Thelma, the mother of the piece, and Jesse, Thelma's anguished daughter, one cannot have lived very long without finding comfort in sharing the discomfort of others. Because all people are wounded in one way or another, what fine theater partly does is make each of us understand others and by understanding others understand ourselves somewhat more after experiencing a revelatory play.

Great theater is therapeutic. It also illuminates the human spirit in all its weaknesses and triumphs as a work of wonder. So it is with the two abandoned people who populate Norman's forlorn 90 minutes of theater.

"Night Mother" transpires in something close to real time. It's an evening mother and daughter spend together alone with bitter memories, deep loves, even deeper hurts and a loss of hope for lives of meaning and happiness. Thelma's husband has passed away some years before. Jesse's marriage has failed, her relationship with her child has failed, and she's back home living with a woman she believes has failed her.

Like voyeurs eavesdropping on private lives absorbed completely in deeply private moments, audience members viewing the emotional disintegration of Thelma and Jesse cannot help but be absorbed themselves, if nothing more (and there may be a great deal more), with an enormous empathy for two terribly lost human beings. It's a "there but for the grace of God" contact with two actors morphed into two real and desperate people that gives "'night, Mother" its profound impact.

La Ronda Etheridge has directed and she has shaped and modulated the production into a symphony of human emotions. Her work at bringing "'night Mother" to the stage simply could not be more subtle nor better. Etheridge's is a triumphant realization of Norman's superb play.

Likewise her players triumph as well.

Stacey Spain is unrecognizable as anyone other than Thelma, this mother of utter dispair. Spain's characterization is sublime and without flaw. So good in fact it's as though she's not acting at all, but living a life and not playing a role. Making the triumph complete is Jamie Plunkett's portrait of Jesse, the lost child of a loveless marriage. Plunkett, too, transcends a merely remarkable performance to live Jesse's life as well.

Both portrayals have a passion only rarely seen even in the most remarkable of professional performances. Tom Plunkett's set design is as dour as it needs to be; the perfect setting, as are Kahele's lighting designs, for this perfect presentation. Bruka's "'night Mother" must be seen to be believed and that's what I'm recommending with great admiration for all involved.

"Night Mother" can be seen at the Bruka Theatre of the Sierra, 99 North Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada, at 8 p.m. Oct. 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, and 2 p.m. Oct. 10 (2004). For information call 775-323-3221.