Night, Mother

Parents are children’s first role models and heroes. They look to their parents for love, guidance and approval. Parents try to shelter and comfort their young from any and every danger. Immediate family ties are supposed to be the strongest bonds of all. Expressions such as, “Like father, like son”, and “Momma’s boy” are frequently used to describe members of the American family. Yet when vital information is withheld from the family by a parent or child, the communication lines within the family can become limited and lead to tragedy. The secrets can lead to lies and over time become skeletons in the closet. Once overfilled, the contents of the closet are spilled onto innocent lives that can either break or make a person stronger. In Marsha Norman’s ‘Night, Mother, we are thrown right into the misfortunate Cates family, where Mama, Thelma, now must face the conflict of lying to herself and her daughter, Jessie, while trying to save her daughter from suicide.
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