" 'night, Mother"

May 13, 2011 — For its last show of the season, Theatre Kapow presented Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, " 'night, Mother," at the Stockbridge Theatre at Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire. This is not an uplifting play. In fact, it's fairly devastating. After spending some time carefully laying things out in her aging mother's house, making arrangements for grocery delivery and other things she'll need when she's left alone, the daughter matter-of-factly informs her mother she's going to kill herself. There's some humorous dialog up to this point between the two rural southern women, before the mother accepts the fact her daughter is serious.

Carey Cahoon as the daughter and Donna Goldfarb as the mother give masterful performances as the mood of the play turns from lighthearted banter in the early going to denial, recrimination, anger and grief as the mother realizes her daughter is on an irreversible course. Tonight was the first of three performances of the play. I usually avoid a first-time performance, not wanting to witness first-night jitters, but I needn't have worried. The performances by the two actresses were emotionally shattering and the direction by Matthew Cahoon perfect.

Following the play, the actresses joined representatives from the Center for Life Management, NAMI-NH, the Connect Project and the Support Group for Survivors of Suicide Loss for a question-and-answer session about suicide prevention with the audience.