‘’night Mother’ at The Theatre Lab left us in tears

“I’m going to kill myself, Mama.”

You can feel the silence in the theater after Jessie addresses these words across the room to her mother Thelma while gingerly cleaning her dead father’s gun at the kitchen table. The clock above the mantle reads just after 8:20 p.m.

Written by Marsha Norman and directed by Madeleine Regina, the 1983-Pulitzer-Prize-winning play ’night Mother takes place in 90 minutes as a mother and daughter battle over the daughter’s impending suicide. Graduates of The Theatre Lab’s Honors Acting Conservatory perform in this devastating drama, set in the kitchen and living room of the rural home of Thelma (Alison Bauer) and her daughter Jessie (Tegan Cohen). Bauer plays an aging “plain country woman,” a widow and mother of two, who evidently spends most of her time watching television and eating candy. Cohen plays a woman in her mid-30s or 40s who suffers from epilepsy. Divorced and the mother of a convict son, she lives at home taking care of her mother. She’s tired, hurt, and wants quiet — dead quiet.

Norman’s dialogue is brilliant, but actors in any two-woman play will face a challenge to keep the audience engaged. These women have mastered the art of subtlety. They draw the audience into their relationship and hold them captive throughout their struggle with life, regret, grief, and death.

The clock on the wall keeps time as mother and daughter wrestle through their broken relationship and question each other about their failed marriages, life decisions, and relationships. A series of stories, bickering matches and outbursts, and even moments of laughter follow. But as the clock ticks down to 10 p.m., borrowed time runs out.

The actors capture the tension and depth of this frayed relationship in both physicality and tone without making that tension overly stressful for the audience. Bauer and Cohen interact with familiarity but not warmth, suggesting that these women have lived together for a long time, but love faded somewhere along the way. They bicker and banter across the living room and kitchen as Cohen bustles around and sets things in order for her departure.

Both women offer compelling performances, but Bauer stands out. She moves back and forth through four of the five stages of grief during the 90-minute exchange — denial, anger, bargaining, and depression — but never quite accepts what her daughter is telling her until it is too late. Her physicality makes the case for her character. As Cohen moves around the space sporadically, most of the drama plays out on Bauer’s face and her posture while she stands, shuffles, and sits.

At first, she thinks her daughter is joking and waves her off. As she grows more concerned, she becomes angry, pacing and throwing things. She sits at the table or on the couch to bargain with her daughter and points at her several times in accusation. Thelma also visibly considers picking up the phone to call her son for help every time Jessie steps out of the room, approaching the phone and touching it or playing with its cord. Still, she hesitates. Bauer chooses the time when Thelma finally believes what her daughter says, and that realization on her face is chilling.

On the same note, the audience may develop more of a connection with Bauer than with Cohen because they see less of Cohen’s face. While Bauer “cheats out” at the table, Cohen does not. Her face remains hidden for about half of the theater in many key moments.

The set design by Megan Holden adds to the effectiveness of the show. From the blue wallpaper to the little crochet doilies throughout the room to the plate in the kitchen that says “bless this home,” everything feels incredibly…mundane. The costumes by Onia Gross fit the same descriptor — green cargo pants and a long sweater for Jessie, fuzzy slippers and a house dress for Thelma. The ordinariness of the 1980s farm home and the clothing of the characters visually emphasizes that the tragedy of suicide could come to any home, no matter how normal.

Thanks to the subtlety and skill of the actors, this devastating drama builds emotional intensity steadily from its opening moments to its climax. The breaking point of that intensity comes at just the right moment as the clock ticks toward 10 p.m.

I can count the plays I’ve cried in on one hand. This one made the list.

Running Time: 90 minutes, no intermission.

’night Mother played from March 13 to 15, 2025, presented by The Theatre Lab’s Breakout Theatre at The Undercroft Theatre, 900 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC. 

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’night Mother
Written by Marsha Norman
Directed by Madeleine Regina

CAST
Alison Bauer (Mama/Thelma)
Tegan Cohen (Jessie)

CREATIVE TEAM
Director: Madeleine Regina
Technical Director: Angelo Merenda
Stage Manager: Jennifer Hardin
Costume Designer: Maria Bissex
Lighting Designer: Emma Smith
SFX Op: Joseph Jackson
Wardrobe: Onia Gross
Lighting Board Operator: Mavelli Jones
Set Designer: Megan Holden
Assistant Stage Manager: Adam Franks, Jo Lau’ren Peele
Fight Choreographer: Kara Turner
Carpenter: Troy Johnson
House Manager: Noah Wesley
Usher: AJ Sultan
Operations Associate: Rachel Lipetz