Laughing Through the 'night
by Michael Mayer • Nov 5, 2004
About the author:
Michael Mayer, who is currently at work on the Broadway revival of Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, 'night Mother, is the winner of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Director and a three-time Tony Award nominee for Best Director. He most recently directed Broadway's After the Fall and Thoroughly Modern Millie, which won six Tony Awards, including the 2003 Tony Award for Best Musical. Mayer made his film directing debut this past summer with A Home at the End of the World. What did Mayer find in directing talented performers Brenda Blethyn and Edie Falco in Norman's dark piece? Something unexpected: laughter.
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What I knew going into production on the revival of Marsha Norman's play 'night, Mother, starring Edie Falco and Brenda Blethyn: Marsha's two-character play is an exquisite piece of writing and the Pulitzer committee in 1983 agreed. Edie and Brenda are marvelous actors, who are more than up to the task of creating indelible portraits of Jesse and Mama. The rehearsal process for the play would be challenging because of the difficult subject matter and the intensity of the characters' journeys during the course of the evening. An evening without an intermission, and played with almost surgical precision, night, Mother may be one of the most harrowing American plays ever written.
What I didn't know: We'd be laughing a lot! This has been one of the most hilarious rehearsals I've ever experienced! The hilarity came from different sources. In some cases, it was simply the fact that Edie and Brenda are both extremely funny women who share a sense of humor and appreciate the absurdities of life. And they both have remarkably contagious laughs complete with some snorting--which only adds to the cackling--breaking us all up for minutes at a time. Also, the dramatic tension of the scene work necessitates a release, and often laughter is the most expedient way to release that tension. These actresses give so much of themselves to the roles every time. Even when we start out with the goal of "marking" through a section for stage business there are several junctures in the play in which the handling of props functions contrapuntally to the emotional trajectory both Edie and Brenda find themselves deeply invested in the moments, and the scene becomes chillingly good as though the assignment were to play it full out. The other reason we laugh so much in rehearsal is perhaps the biggest surprise of all: the play is very, very funny at times.
Marsha has so brilliantly rendered the characters of Jesse and Mama, that they take on a life of their own; and just like the moments where Brenda and Edie need to release the tension of the scene, so do the characters themselves. One aspect of the troubled relationship between the two characters is that neither of them "gets" the other; each character has a finely tuned sense of humor that bears no relationship to the sense of humor of the other. So these two women crack themselves up at times, with no audience in the other to appreciate their wit. It is a dynamic both heartbreaking and bracingly funny to witness.
Now that we are in previews, it delights me to watch an audience discover, that along with the devastating dramatic arc of the play, moments of comedy come bursting forth. The big laughs roll through the Royale Theatre, and the patrons are tickled into perhaps a false sense of security, so that when, in the next moment, the play takes a sharp turn towards the dark, they are caught unawares, and the play works its other magic on them. In 90 minutes of real time, we see a mother and daughter caught in a cataclysmic moment of their lives, and we are allowed in to witness some deep pain and loss and desperation. Thanks to Marsha's excellent writing and the astonishing work of these great actresses, we also get some real life-affirming laughs as well.
Michael Mayer, who is currently at work on the Broadway revival of Marsha Norman's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, 'night Mother, is the winner of Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for Best Director and a three-time Tony Award nominee for Best Director. He most recently directed Broadway's After the Fall and Thoroughly Modern Millie, which won six Tony Awards, including the 2003 Tony Award for Best Musical. Mayer made his film directing debut this past summer with A Home at the End of the World. What did Mayer find in directing talented performers Brenda Blethyn and Edie Falco in Norman's dark piece? Something unexpected: laughter.
____________________________________________________
What I knew going into production on the revival of Marsha Norman's play 'night, Mother, starring Edie Falco and Brenda Blethyn: Marsha's two-character play is an exquisite piece of writing and the Pulitzer committee in 1983 agreed. Edie and Brenda are marvelous actors, who are more than up to the task of creating indelible portraits of Jesse and Mama. The rehearsal process for the play would be challenging because of the difficult subject matter and the intensity of the characters' journeys during the course of the evening. An evening without an intermission, and played with almost surgical precision, night, Mother may be one of the most harrowing American plays ever written.
What I didn't know: We'd be laughing a lot! This has been one of the most hilarious rehearsals I've ever experienced! The hilarity came from different sources. In some cases, it was simply the fact that Edie and Brenda are both extremely funny women who share a sense of humor and appreciate the absurdities of life. And they both have remarkably contagious laughs complete with some snorting--which only adds to the cackling--breaking us all up for minutes at a time. Also, the dramatic tension of the scene work necessitates a release, and often laughter is the most expedient way to release that tension. These actresses give so much of themselves to the roles every time. Even when we start out with the goal of "marking" through a section for stage business there are several junctures in the play in which the handling of props functions contrapuntally to the emotional trajectory both Edie and Brenda find themselves deeply invested in the moments, and the scene becomes chillingly good as though the assignment were to play it full out. The other reason we laugh so much in rehearsal is perhaps the biggest surprise of all: the play is very, very funny at times.
Marsha has so brilliantly rendered the characters of Jesse and Mama, that they take on a life of their own; and just like the moments where Brenda and Edie need to release the tension of the scene, so do the characters themselves. One aspect of the troubled relationship between the two characters is that neither of them "gets" the other; each character has a finely tuned sense of humor that bears no relationship to the sense of humor of the other. So these two women crack themselves up at times, with no audience in the other to appreciate their wit. It is a dynamic both heartbreaking and bracingly funny to witness.
Now that we are in previews, it delights me to watch an audience discover, that along with the devastating dramatic arc of the play, moments of comedy come bursting forth. The big laughs roll through the Royale Theatre, and the patrons are tickled into perhaps a false sense of security, so that when, in the next moment, the play takes a sharp turn towards the dark, they are caught unawares, and the play works its other magic on them. In 90 minutes of real time, we see a mother and daughter caught in a cataclysmic moment of their lives, and we are allowed in to witness some deep pain and loss and desperation. Thanks to Marsha's excellent writing and the astonishing work of these great actresses, we also get some real life-affirming laughs as well.