Review: THE MOTHER at Mana Little Theatre

The play is written by French playwright Florian Zeller and is a companion piece to his well known play The Father. While The Father deals with the the decline of the mind of an Alzheimers suffer, The Mother takes on the clinical depression of a woman adrift in middle age. 

Debuting in New York in Feb 2019, this play was written four years before The Father.

The four cast members were all of a high standard, but Jodie Mahan as Anne (the Mother) was sensational.  She took us from a woman standing on the precipice of sanity and showed us what happens when she falls.

Told in a number of seemingly repeated scenes, we are never quite sure exactly which scene is real and which are playing in Anne's mind.  

Her husband Peter played by Harlan Te Wiata is late home from work-is he having an affair? Anne thinks so. Her son Nicholas (Blair McLean) comes home in the middle of the night and only Anne sees him. Is he really there?

Gayle Hammersley plays Nicholas' girlfriend Elodie, who doesn't appear in the play until early in the second half and is not welcome when she arrives, as Anne feels she is losing her son's love to her.

Director Sue Mortimer, certainly got the most out of her cast, with excellent blocking and attention to detail. My only comment would be that Peter was at times difficult to hear and would benefit from a bit more projection.

The lighting by John Mahan was spot on.

This was a very dramatic work and the cast need to be applauded for their work. We all left the theatre slightly wrung out as the tension was wound ever more tightly until the final curtain.

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