Mother Play
A Play in Five Evictions
- Full Length Play, Drama, 1980s, New Millennium/21st Century, Present Day, 1970s, 1960s
- 1M, 2F
- ISBN: 9780573711411
Paula Vogel’s hilarious and heartbreaking semi-autobiographical portrait of a mother and her two children reveals – through five evictions – timeless truths of love, family and forgiveness.
Description
- Full Length Play
- Drama
- 105 minutes
- Time Period: 1980s, New Millennium/21st Century, Present Day, 1970s, 1960s
- Target Audience: Adult
- Set Requirements: Unit Set/Multiple Settings
- Cautions: Alcohol, Mild Adult Themes, Strong Language, Smoking
- Performance Group:
- College Theatre / Student, Community Theatre, Blackbox / Second Stage /Fringe Groups, Professional Theatre
- Accolades:
- Nominee! Four Tony Awards including Best Play (2024)
Nominee! Four Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Play (2024)
Nominee! Three Drama League Awards including Best Play (2024)
Nominee! Three Outer Critics Circle Awards including Outstanding New Broadway Play (2024)
REVIEWS:
"A genuinely engaging examination of a family trying to find equilibrium."
Variety
"Vogel, who loves a dirty joke, knows that laughter is a way of taking things seriously. Sometimes the best way… Thirty or so years ago, Vogel told a reporter, ‘I like theater that makes me feel like it’s a healing.’ That’s what Mother Play is, a balm that comes in cardboard boxes and packing tape. It honors the dead by making them alive again and nurtures the living by providing a place to put a daughter’s love and rage."
The New York Times
"Painfully honest… The play is a slice of life, served raw. It’s a savage but grudgingly loving portrait of two women stuck together with blood: one who never wanted to be a mother, and one who never chose to be her daughter."
TimeOut NY
"A genuinely engaging examination of a family trying to find equilibrium… Mother Play is a mostly devastating narrative about a woman who can neither connect to her children nor adjust to the rapidly changing society around her. However, the narrative doesn’t sit in sadness. Instead, the dialogue boasts a web of humor and wit."
Variety
"Paula Vogel’s latest work delivers all the humor and poignancy of a Tennessee Williams classic."
The Wrap
Characters
- Casting: 1M, 2F
- Casting Attributes: Strong Role for Leading Woman (Star Vehicle)
CARL HERMAN – The Son. Ages 13-37. The genius in the family.
MARTHA HERMAN – The Daughter. Ages 11-50s.
Available Material
| Name | Price |
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Mother Play Script
This is optional.
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It's 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis is supervising her teenage children, Carl and Martha, as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe to the child who finds their own path. Bolstered by gin and cigarettes, the family endures – or survives – the changing world around them. |
$24.95 |
