Theater review: “ ’night Mother” at Modern CdA an intense, powerful story

There is something shockingly straightforward about Jessie’s decision to end her life in Marsha Norman’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “ ’night Mother.”

She roots around in the attic for her late father’s gun. Asks her mother if she can have that old “swimming towel,” and decides that a garbage bag can be of use. She makes lists for her mother – where to find her medications, for example. She refills her many candy jars and prepares to give Mama her weekly manicure. She sets about her last day on Earth with a purpose.

Death, she imagines, will be “exactly what I want. Dark and quiet,” she says.

But when it comes time to tell her mother what she plans to do – to lock herself in her room and pull the trigger, that’s when drama explodes onstage.

In the Modern Theater Coeur d’Alene’s production of Norman’s acclaimed two-woman show, Marianne McLaughlin and Emily Jones argue, reminisce, yell and cry, but they can’t really understand each other. Jones’ Jessie is chronically depressed. Her marriage is over, and her son is a crook. She lives with her widowed mother and rarely leaves the house.

McLaughlin’s Mama has become utterly dependent on her adult daughter. Jessie does the cooking and the cleaning and takes care of her mother’s groceries and medications. She admits at one point that she’d let her daughter take control to give her something to do. When Jessie reveals her plan, Mama is at first disbelieving. Then despondent. And angry.

“If I’d known how you were going to react I never would have told you,” Jessie yells at her mother. Later, in despair, Mama wails, “I don’t know what I did wrong, but I know this is my fault.”

Both of these are meaty women’s roles, and it’s no wonder that “ ’night Mother” has featured talented actresses such as Sissy Spacek, Kathy Bates, Anne Bancroft, Edie Falco and Brenda Blethyn. McLaughlin is a natural as Mama. The veteran local actress brings the right amount of gravitas to her performance. Her Mama is loud and honest, and McLaughlin does an excellent job of bringing her character through the emotional stages she experiences. In the final moments as she crumples to the floor and weeps, the audience feels her wounds. It’s a powerful performance.

Jones is excellent, too, steadfast in her desire to end her life. She’s so matter-of-fact; it’s almost as if having this final act to do, and preparing for it as she does, is the only thing that’s given her even a hint of joy in a long time.

But I think her character is where the play most shows its age. Thirty years later, and Mama would be marching Jessie to the doctor for a Zoloft prescription. Our understanding of depression is much better than it was back in the early ’80s, and while Jessie’s outcome might have been the same (antidepressants don’t help everyone), it’s frankly harder to imagine a scenario playing out like it does onstage.

Still, “ ’night Mother” makes for an intense and moving 90 minutes of theater. That we have two such talented actresses guiding us on this journey makes it worth the ride.