NIGHT MOTHER at CityRep

Marsha Norman; dir: Ruth Charnay.

Authors

• Marsha Norman

Night, Mother is a 1983 play by Marsha Norman about a daughter, Jessie, and her mother, Thelma (referred to as “Mama” in the play). The play opens with Jessie calmly telling Mama that by morning she will be dead, as she plans to commit suicide that very evening (she makes this revelation all while nonchalantly organizing household items and preparing to do her mother’s nails). The subsequent dialogue between Jessie and Mama slowly reveals her reasons for her decision, her life with Mama, and how thoroughly she has planned her own death, culminating in a disturbing – yet unavoidable – climax.