Character Breakdown: MOTHER PLAY Cast Unpacks Their Roles

Previews are now underway for Second Stage's newest play- Paula Vogel's Mother Play.

It’s 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis is supervising her teenage children, Carl and Martha, as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe be the child who finds their own path. Bolstered by gin and cigarettes, the family endures — or survives — the changing world around them. Blending flares of imaginative theatricality, surreal farce, and deep tenderness, this beautiful rollercoaster ride reveals timeless truths of love, family, and forgiveness.

"[Phillis] hits every note you can imagine on the scale," explained Lange. "We cover four decades of time, which in itself is very challenging and exciting to discover. There are certain things that resonate [about the character]. There are certain things that you know about your own personal experience, and then their are things that are so outside your wheelhouse that to try to imagine how something like that happens opens up another whole vista."

Watch as the cast unpacks their roles and find out even more about the new play here!