Review: Good Theater's World Premiere of Urbinati Play Is Gripping Theatre at Its Best

In mounting the world premiere of Rob Urbinati's new play, Mama's Boy, Good Theater's Artistic Director Brian P. Allen has given Maine a great gift - one of the company's finest productions - some two hours of searing psychological drama, tautly directed and brought to life by a stellar cast.

Urbinati's (Death by Design, Hazelwood) two-act play explores the complex, emotionally wrought family dynamics of Lee Harvey Oswald, his mother Marguerite, his wife Marina, and his brother Robert in the time just prior to and just after the Kennedy assassination. Though the play is rooted in history and evokes indelible memories in the communal consciousness, it is less about the tragic events of 1963 and more about the personal relationships of four damaged individuals desperately seeking some connection and meaning. At the epicenter of this dysfunctional family is Marguerite Oswald, thrice married single parent to three estranged sons, a fierce and tender woman who sees herself as victim and survivor, a woman whose own emotional demands continue to cripple her children. Returning from his defection to Russia, Lee Harvey brings with him his bewildered young wife Marina and their first child, and Urbinati examines Lee Harvey's troubled year before November 22, 1963 as he struggles to support himself and his family, find an ideology, and take hold of his manhood by freeing himself from his mother. The playwright effectively probes Lee Harvey Oswald's increasing instability, as well as his conflicts with Marina and Marguerite. Though the play offers no answers to the many riddles of the JFK assassination, it does challenge the audience to view the characters as human beings and to realize that the dreadful events at Dealey Plaza claimed the Oswald family among its victims, as well as the beloved President, his family, and a grieving nation.

Urbinati writes with compassion, clarity, and a brilliant sense of building dramatic encounters. His dialogue is eloquent, even poetic at times, electric and edgy, punctuated with acerbic irony and dizzyingly absurd repartee. His structure is essentially chronological - beginning in 1962 in Act I and in Act II handling the immediate aftermath of Kennedy's and Oswald's murders up to Marguerite's bizarre comments at a public meeting at Town Hall, though the last scene returns briefly to 1959 when Lee Harvey and Marguerite share a moment which serves as a heartbreaking coda to all that has come before.

B.P. Allen directs with a sure hand, maintaining a perfect balance between riveting tension and moments of relieving laughter, and he masterfully helps his actors articulate the subtleties of their characters as well as to build the big confrontations.

Betsy Aidem gives a blazing performance as Marguerite - part tigress, part Amanda Wingfield, self-absorbed and overbearing, desiring love and uncannily managing to destroy it. The fierceness and tenderness of her performance and the actress' ability to alienate and elicit sympathy at the same time is nothing short of magnificent - Tony worthy in another venue!

Graham Emmons makes Lee Harvey Oswald equally complex and sympathetic, not only a loser, but also a lost soul, who lashes out at those he loves and grapples for an ideology to fill his emptiness. Emmons convincingly portrays Lee Harvey's growing abusiveness and mental deterioration as he moves toward his demise. Laurel Casillo is a fascinating presence as Marina, at first a shy, awkward foreigner, who gradually asserts a certain amount of will and even rebellion, but who is ultimately sucked into the whirlpool of catastrophe. Erik Moody sensitively portrays the older, unloved Oswald brother Robert, who feels trapped yet desperately tries to assert himself and rescue his brother and Marina before it is too late.

Craig Robinson's simple set ,with props by Cheryl Dolan, consists of gloomy green walls and shabby furniture quickly rearranged for the different locales - all of which convey the Oswalds' threadbare existence, while the large rear screen with black/white photographic projections by Steve Underwood looms over the personal drama as an inexorable reminder of intruding history. Iain Odlin's warm lighting contributes to the domesticity of the drama, while Justin Cote's costumes and Kathleen Kimball's wigs and hair recall perfectly the 1960s and the straightened circumstances of the family. Steve Underwood provides the excellent sound design, and Victoria Stubbs creates musical interludes to cover set changes and to set tone. Special mention to the Russian dialect coach Charlotte Rosenthal, who helps add authenticity to Lee and Marina's first act exchanges. (And a general word of praise to the entire cast for credible dialects throughout - both Texas accents and Marina's broken Russian-English.)

Mama's Boy is a major new work that deserves a wider national, even international audience. Urbinati's is a dramatic voice that speaks with the fire and eloquence of some of America's great masters - reminiscent of Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Eugene O'Neill - and yet resonates with an originality all its own. Allen and the Good Theater have outdone themselves in this production, assembling a brilliant cast and mounting a stunning production that is a must see! Portland can only express its thanks for the privilege of watching this work come to life!

Photos courtesy of the Good Theater

Mama's Boy runs from October 28 - November 22, 2015 at the Good Theater, 76 Congress St., Portl

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