'night, Mother: A Play (Mermaid Dramabook) [Paperback]

Marsha Norman (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mermaid Dramabook | Publication Date: August 1, 1983

'night, Mother is a taut and fluid drama that addresses different emotions and special relations. By one of America's most talented playwrights, this play won the Dramatists Guild's prestigious Hull-Warriner Award, four Tony nominations, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize in 1983.

'night, Mother had its world premiere at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in December 1982. It opened on Broadway in March 1983, directed by Tom Moore and starring Anne Pitoniak and Kathy Bates; a film, starring Anne Bancroft and Sissy Spacek, was released in 1986.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The subjects are suicide, love, and the meaning of life--as huge as they come; but they are treated with the specificity of threading a needle or choosing the right breakfast for your needs. Humor and pathos pop up as naturally as wild flowers or fences by the roadside; there is devastating psychological accuracy and nothing seems contrived; and there is that bustle of minutely perceived existential details that bespeak the master."--John Simon, New York

"Ever since I first read 'night, Mother it has filled me with the kind of exaltation I experience only in the presence of a major dramatic work..."--Robert Brustein, The New Republic

"If there is such a thing as benign explosion, this play is it: it detonates with startling quietness, showering us with truth, compassion and uncompromising honesty..."--Jack Kroll, Newsweek

"A spare but lyrical dialogue, 'night, Mother probes deeply into the mother-daughter relationship while making a disturbing statement about responsibility and courage. It is as artfully designed as a sonata, rising in each dramatic movement until it arrives at its inevitable destination."--The New York Times Magazine

From the Publisher

Winner, International Sony Award, 1994. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Hill and Wang; 2nd edition (August 1, 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374521387
• ISBN-13: 978-0374521387
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Swift, taut, chilling play of family, suicide, helplessness., October 25, 1999

By 

Christian Engler (Woburn, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 'night, Mother: A Play (Mermaid Dramabook) (Paperback)

Night, Mother is a sharp, terse play that examines the issue of hopelessness in all areas and facets of life. What is hopelessness, and how does it come about? This play looks at one aspect of suicide and its eventual cause: the loss of one's self, one's identity. The dialogues between Mother and Jessie are intense, but yet there is a separateness, a barrier that can not be broken between the two. They are united together by their relation, but it ends there. The mother/daughter relationship in this play is quite believeable -- albeit sad and unfortunate. Night, Mother is a dark, chilling play that leaves a pondering imprint on your mind long after the last page has been read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A devastating portrait of a mother and daughter, October 14, 2006

By 

Gregory Baird (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 'night, Mother: A Play (Mermaid Dramabook) (Paperback)

"'night, Mother" is a tour de force conversation between a mother, Thelma, and her daughter, Jessie, who has just told her that she is going to commit suicide at the end of the night. The play is a taut high-wire act that leaves you spellbound as Thelma tries to convince her daughter not to go through with it and Jessie sternly insists. Thelma and Jessie are extremely dimensional, deep characters with an achingly believable relationship. Through the course of their conversation it becomes apparent that there is a yawning chasm between them despite their seeming closeness, and while Thelma thinks that the two can put it right Jessie doesn't believe it -- or want to try. The fierce, emotional back-and-forth between Mother and daughter keeps you on the edge of your seat. The dialogue is very natural and believable, and the playwright, Marsha Norman, displays an extraordinary acuity for what her characters are feeling and have gone through to reach this point. Norman has crafted a devastating portrait of two women that leaves an enormous impact on the reader. I only finished it two hours ago, but I seriously doubt that "night, Mother" will be leaving my thoughts any time soon. Highly recommended -- but keep the Kleenex on hand, just in case.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Most Fearsome Plays of the Past Thirty Years, October 10, 2006

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 'night, Mother: A Play (Mermaid Dramabook) (Paperback)

Marsha Norman's 1983 Pulitizer Prize-winning 'NIGHT, MOTHER is frequently described as a play "about suicide." Although the play does indeed deal with suicide, this is actually a shallow designation; it is about a lot of things, but most particularly control: who has it, who wants it, and the extent a person will go to obtain it.

The play involves two characters: Thelma, an elderly woman, and Jessie, her middle-aged daughter. They have lived together in an isolated house on a rural road for a number of years. Thelma describes herself as "a plain country woman;" she enjoys life in a fundamental way, not expecting more than she already knows, watching television, knitting, nibbling at sweets, and enjoying regular visits from her son and his family. Jessie, who suffers from epilepsy and is divorced, has become something of a recluse, and her life consists largely of managing her mother's home and thinking on the past. One evening, as the play begins, Jessie informs Thelma that she has decided to kill herself right after she gives Thelma her weekly manicure.

Thelma does not take Jessie seriously at first; clearly there have been too many scenes between the two for Jessie's statement to have any real meaning for her. But Jessie is serious indeed, and over the course of an hour and a half the play evolves into a battle of wits, Jessie determined to kill herself, Thelma equally determined to prevent her from it. In the process, we learn quite a bit about the family and their lives and the various emotional and factual secrets the women have hidden from each other over the years.

The play is brilliantly constructed, performed in "real time" without any scene changes or intermission; the characters--and the equally vivid people they discuss but whom we never see--are equally well rendered. There are moments are laughter, even more moments of insight, but the play is progressively intense, progressively dark, with all the power of a noose that slowly tightens around your neck. One of the most fearsome bits of theatre of the past thirty years or so, easily the equal of such legendary works as Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer