January 30, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 11A
‘Life gets messy. Let’s show it.’
Coaster Theatre
presents ‘’night,
Mother,’ a drama
about suicide
and choice
By Erick Bengel
Cannon Beach Gazette
Jessie Cates has severe epilep-
sy. She can’t keep a job and lives
with her mother out in the country.
Her father is dead, her husband has
divorced her, and her son is a ju-
venile delinquent. But, now in her
40s, she has reached a point where
her medications seem to be work-
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So, one day, Jessie announces
to her mother, Thelma Cates, that
she plans to kill herself.
This is the set-up for “’night,
Mother,” Marsha Norman’s Pu-
litzer Prize-winning drama that
opens at the Coaster Theatre Jan.
30 and runs through Feb. 21.
“It’s just so well crafted —
oh my gosh, so well written,”
said Margaret Page, who plays
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prompt discussion.” Early on, in
fact, Page’s participation in the
play provoked a conversation with
a “card-carrying Catholic” friend
about Oregon’s Death with Digni-
ty Act, she said.
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formed in 1983, is disturbing and
unforgettable because it presents
suicide not merely as a tragedy but
as a choice — as a reasoned deci-
sion, said Sheila Shaffer, director
of the Coaster production.
Jessie’s decision is “not being
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ical pain,” she said. On the con-
trary: Jessie looks at her life objec-
tively, sees where it is going and
simply chooses to discontinue it.
Death with dignity
One of the reasons “’night,
Mother” deserved the Pulitzer,
Shaffer said, is that the characters,
two strong-willed women, make
compelling arguments. Some au-
dience members may be put off by
Jessie’s uncomfortably persuasive
case for suicide.
Jessie, played by Ann Bronson,
“has a monologue where she says
she’s been waiting for the person
she was supposed to grow up to
be, and that person never came,”
Shaffer said.
GEORGE VETTER PHOTO
Ann Bronson, left, and Margaret Page, right, star in the Coaster
Theatre’s production of “‘night, Mother” as Jessie Cates and Thelma
Cates, respectively. The play, which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for
drama, presents suicide not just as a tragedy but as a choice. It is not
for younger audiences.
In “‘night, Mother,” the charac-
ter Jessie Cates, played by Ann
Bronson, left, announces to her
mother, Thelma Cates, played
by Margaret Page, right, that
she doesn’t want to live any-
more. Marsha Norman’s play,
running at the Coaster Theatre,
won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for
drama.
GEORGE VETTER PHOTO
Thelma feels responsible for
Jesse’s decision and tries to talk
her daughter out of it. But Jessie
tries to convince her mother that
it’s nobody’s decision but her
own. “It wasn’t a decision that
she’s come to overnight. This is
something she’s been thinking
about.”
“A mother’s love is an elemen-
tal force, and a mother wants the
best for her children,” Page said.
“It’s just that, sometimes, what
the parents want isn’t necessarily
what the child wants.”
As “’night, Mother” — which
takes place in real time — pro-
ceeds toward its climax, Thelma
watches helplessly as her daugh-
ter’s behavior grows increasingly
alarming. Jessie, she realizes, is
not crying out for help but is on a
mission: She is determined to take
control over a life that has, until
now, offered her very little control.
“It’s going to make people
think. It’s going to make people
feel,” Page said.
Light and dark
Shaffer, a 13-year Coaster vet-
eran, played Thelma in graduate
school.
When she heard the Coaster’s
program committee had select-
ed “’night, Mother” for its 2015
season, “I was like, ‘Oh – my
– God,’” she said, laughing. “I
couldn’t even imagine myself get-
ting into that headspace again.”
Her personal connection to the
play is partly why Patrick Lath-
rop, the theater’s executive direc-
tor, asked Shaffer to direct it: She
already knew the play well and
“had a sensitivity toward it,” Lath-
rop said.
“It takes you on a personal
journey that turns you inside out,”
Shaffer said. “You really have to
question and think about what you
would do in this situation ... and
the emotions are high.”
“’night, Mother,” — which
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Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft
as Jessie and Thelma, respective-
ly — is traditionally staged as a
one-act. But Shaffer said she will
have an intermission at roughly
the 45-minute mark, making the
full show almost two hours.
Lathrop admits that the play
will not be everyone’s cup of tea.
He won’t be surprised if there’s at
least one walk-out during inter-
mission, he said. The subject may
be one that some folks in the au-
dience either aren’t ready to deal
with or have dealt with and would
rather not do so again.
For people who have faced
suicide in one form or another, it
may be too triggering. They may
say, “‘That’s just way too close to
home,’” Shaffer said.
But others who have consid-
ered or attempted suicide, or expe-
rienced someone they love do the
same, may say, “‘I can totally re-
late, and I’m so glad they’re writ-
ing something about this, because
this will help people understand
what I went through.’”
To be clear, though: “’night,
Mother” isn’t a play with uninter-
rupted despair. Like most engag-
ing scripts, it contains scenes of
joy and love and laughter — like
when mother and daughter just sit
down and drink hot cocoa togeth-
er, she said.
“There (have) to be moments
of levity. There (have) to be mo-
ments of tenderness in between
the moments of crying and grief
and anger, because that makes the
happiness even better and the grief
even more devastating,” she said.
“You need the dark in order for
the light to shine through,” Lath-
rop said. “Most aspects of life
have both dark and light qualities,
so, therefore, most plays do also.”
AARON LARGET-CAPLAN
Classical
guitarist to
perform at
Coaster
International classical guitarist Aar-
on Larget-Caplan will perform at the
Coaster Theatre on Valentine’s Day.
His program, “Of Dreams and
Love,” will be performed at 7:30 p.m.
Feb. 14 in the theater.
An avid solo and chamber music
performer, Larget-Caplan’s perfor-
mances combine traditional expressive-
ness with contemporary passion. He
gave his debut performance at age 15
and has since premiered over 50 com-
positions throughout the United States,
Italy and Russia. Formerly on the facul-
ty of the Boston Conservatory, he now
teaches at the University of Massachu-
setts Boston.
Tickets are $15 and $20. To purchase
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1242 or check the website at www.
coastertheatre.com
The concert is sponsored through
the city’s tourism and arts fund, which
is administered by the Cannon Beach
Tourism and Arts Commission.
Empathy
Why should anyone see this
play? The answer, Shaffer said, is
empathy.
“People should go see it to
have a better understanding about
how to deal with their fellow hu-
man beings, and their own fami-
ly members sometimes,” Shaffer
said. “How can you form an opin-
ion about a subject matter like sui-
cide unless you know the full story
and you know the entire reasoning
behind somebody’s decision? It’s
not something to be taken lightly.”
Page considers a good play one
that “provides you with a take-
away. And the takeaway, in my
opinion, from ‘’night, Mother’ is
that you can never really know
the people around you. You can
only love and forgive them. And, I
think, in that respect, it’s almost an
inspiration.”
The purpose of theater is “to
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our lives,” Lathrop said.
“Life gets messy,” Shaffer said.
“Let’s show it.”
Social Security
workshop set
A workshop to help potential retirees
learn about Social Security and maximize
retirement income is set for March 3.
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the South County center of Clatsop Com-
munity College, 1455 N. Roosevelt Drive,
Seaside.
It will cover several topics, including:
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6HFXULW\ EHQH¿WV DQG KRZ WR FRRUGLQDWH
Social Security with other sources of re-
tirement income.
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