I’ve been to Leisure World in Maryland. I know exactly the place where Phyllis will plop on her long rambling journey through life. Paula Vogel’s surface level Mother Play gives us another miserable boozehound to watch devour the souls of her children.
Subtitled “a play in five evictions” provides all the clues one needs to know where this family drama is headed. Martha (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and Carl (Jim Parsons) seem to be clever nerdy children when the play opens in 1964. They seem loosely bonded to their mother’s unsteady orbit like buzzing electrons barely clinging to mom’s unstable isotope. Books are an escape in between making mom cocktails.
Right up front we hear that there’s a season for packing and a season for unpacking. This one act play will follow this family as they age from 1964 to the 21st century. The young ones will face faint praise occasionally and brutal criticism more commonly. In between there will be evictions as their situation worsens. The divorce took its toll. Mom is a self-absorbed caricature who, frankly, regrets having her children.
That material is catnip for me and I complete relate to this dysfunctional family scenario. Why, then, did this work come across as so utterly devoid of emotion? Jessica Lange is a recognizable mean old drunk if a tad glamorous. This persona has been seen before so some new shadings or revelations might have made this play or this character say something new. Instead we watch a rerun. It’s not bad; just bland.
Both kids, as is telegraphed early on, turn out to be gay. Mom had hoped for at least one normal child. The tensions and separations occur as expected. The 1980s also happen. Mom isolates herself after years and years of abusing her people. A lonely TV dinner is the heavy symbolism employed. That silent scene is really long and boring.
Mr. Parsons is a witty bon vivant before his eventual explosion, extraction and attempts at self-preservation. The heart of this play is the daughter played by Ms. Keenan-Bolger. The role functions as the narrator of this oft-told tale in which, sadly, many of us can see parallels to our own lives. Will there be resolution and forgiveness at the end? Should there be? Without any emotional core to grasp onto I simply didn’t care much.
Second Stage is presenting Mother Play at the Hayes Theater on Broadway through June 16, 2024.