THE MOTHER By Florian Zeller to Have Florida Premiere at Arsht Center

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County will present the Florida Premiere of Florian Zeller's haunting drama THE MOTHER. Part of Zeller's celebrated trilogy that includes The Father and The Son, this psychological thriller explores themes of love, loss and the fragile bonds between parent and child. The Mother kicks off the 2025-26 Theater Up Close season at the Arsht and features an all-local cast starring seven-time Carbonell Award winner Jeni Hacker. 

For guests with accessibility needs, the Arsht provides accessible seating and complimentary assistive listening devices for all performances, along with sign language interpretation, open captioning, and audio description at select shows to ensure an inclusive experience for all guests.

"The Mother is a play that is as mysterious as it is funny as it is heartbreaking as it is insightful,” said Zoetic Stage Artistic Director Stuart Meltzer. “This play explores the complex fragility of a woman going through empty nest syndrome and her plight to keep being needed. This is a thrilling piece of art."

Anne's adult children are off living their own lives and her husband is busy with his career. So where does that leave Anne, who has built her identity around creating a family and being a good mother? On the night before her husband is set to leave on a business trip, her son comes home to sleep in his old room. Or does he? It's impossible to know for certain in this riveting play about a woman whose inner life is constantly shifting.

The play is second in Zeller's celebrated play trilogy examining how individuals cope with complex emotional situations, following the Tony Award-winning play The Father (which was an Oscar-winning film starring Anthony Hopkins) and The Son. The Mother made its US premiere in 2019 at New York's Atlantic Theater Company, featuring a notable cast including Isabelle Hupert, Chris Noth, Justice Smith and Odessa Young.

Zoetic Stage's production of The Mother features an all-local cast led by Jeni Hacker and Steven G. Anthony, who previously starred in Zoetic Stage's production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time in 2019. Davis Parks and Allie Beltran will make their Zoetic debuts. Headshots and bios for the full cast are available here.