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My Child: Mothers of War

Reviewed by Neal Weaver

Hudson Backstage

Through May 31

RECOMMENDED:

This piece, written and directed by Angeliki Giannakopoulos, and based on her award-winning documentary film, takes a probing look at the lives of women whose children served in the armed forces during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It provides an emotionally charged examination of their love, hopes, pride, fears, and, in many cases their desolation when the war claimed their offspring. Factually speaking, there is little that is new here. The focus is on the feelings that underlie the facts: the women’s fears of answering the phone, lest this might be the call that announces their loss, their attempts to bear their grief and survive their losses, and find a way to go on.

There’s a determined effort to be fair-minded, and avoid taking sides politically. There’s one mother (Mimi Rogers) who doesn’t believe in the war, but must accept the fact that her son does believe in it, and is willing to fight it. Another (Frances Fisher) is a fanatical believer who is offended by those who question the reasons for the war, and regards their skepticism as offenses against her child. And there’s the mother (Monique Edwards) who trusts in God, and consoles herself with the thought that, whatever happens, it’s His plan.

The format is that of a staged reading: the six women—Edwards, Laura Ceron, Fisher, Melina Kanakaredes, Rogers, and Anna Giannotis — are seated behind music stands containing their scripts. But though it is a reading, it’s acted full out, and the women occasionally rise from their chairs to move into a fully staged scene. And there is a seventh woman, Maria Nicolacakis, who performs a shattering vignette as a woman whose son survives, despite being badly maimed and disfigured.

There’s also a large and able ensemble, including Randy Mulkey, Anthony Rey Perez, Nick Marini, and Rydell Danzie, whose scenes are more fully staged, and though brief, they are telling. They also provide the occasional comic touches that prevent the show’s solemnity from becoming lugubrious.

This is obviously a labor of love for all those involved, and they make it rewarding, even when it is sometimes harrowing.

Artemis Productions LLC and Human Revolution Entertainment at Hudson Backstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; Sun., 7 p.m., through May 31. (818) 963-8219, https://www.plays411.net/mychild