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‘night, Mother

Reviewed by Jenny Lower

Whitmore Eclectic at Lost Studio

Through Dec. 14

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In Marsha Norman’s 1983 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, an adult woman who acts as caretaker for her elderly mother casually announces that she plans to shoot herself before the evening is through. From this initial premise, the two-hander progresses in real time as Jessie (Sylva Kelegian) tidies up mundane household details, while her horrified mother (Lisa Richards) grasps at any argument — an upcoming birthday, the danger of missing and becoming a vegetable — that might dissuade her daughter.

Though discussions of suicide tragically never pass out of season, the Whitmore Eclectic’s revival of ‘night, Mother, directed by Aliah Whitmore, feels especially timely on the heels of high-profile cases like Robin Williams and Brittany Maynard, the 29 year-old terminally ill with brain cancer who recently ended her own life. Theatergoers will differ in their response to Jessie’s circumstances according to their own experiences, but the play itself takes a largely non-judgmental approach. Jessie has her share of troubles, including a failed marriage, estranged son, and a medical condition, but her existential rejection is due to both all and none of these factors. She just doesn’t like the state of the world, she declares, from Red China to being the live-in help for her ailing mother. Suicide is her way of calling a timeout, of shutting down the whole mess.

But the play hints at a deeper existential trouble — a character whose sense of autonomy is so eroded, opting for negation feels like the only way to sever the maternal bond and assert her own will. It’s not an impulsive decision, nor, the play takes great pains to explain, a selfish choice (even if it is a self-interested one). Kelegian’s even performance captures a woman weary of life’s slog, of not really being seen by those closest to her, still capable of being pricked by fresh hurts even as they affirm her choice. Her election of suicide is asserted as a final act of self-care in a life that has been largely characterized by rotten luck and a lack of consideration from others, even as she applied herself to their well-being.

But, viewers might ask, is Jessie’s situation really any different, or worse, than what countless others have been through, especially lately? Since the Great Recession, plenty of laid-off or underemployed individuals have endured their own sense of professional uselessness, sharpened by financial catastrophe, or adopted mutually beneficial living arrangements with aging parents. Even Jessie acknowledges that health-wise, her life has never been better. Though the play takes a compassionate view, I wonder at audience patience for her ineffable malaise in the face of more widespread and concrete personal disasters. Richards’s performance seems calibrated to address those critiques, with a sense of the ridiculous underscoring Thelma’s earnest but misplaced attempts to cajole her daughter out of depression.

There is a sense of urgency missing at times from this production, which keeps Norman’s play from becoming as gripping as it might otherwise be. The script’s lack of discussion about any kind of mental health diagnosis or support also becomes a distracting anachronism, even as Jacob Whitmore’s production design sets us firmly in the mid-1980s, with its suffocating clutter of domesticity. What the play does acknowledge, with wisdom and insight, is how ultimately unknowable can be other people’s pain, and the limits of our capacity to help them.

Whitmore Eclectic in association with Ellen Gerstein Productions at Lost Studio, 130 S. La Brea Ave., LA; Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through Dec. 14. (818) 826-3609, www.whitmoreeclectic.com.