Review: CRY IT OUT Delivers the Laughs at Capital Stage

Just in time for Mother’s Day, Capital Stage has revealed a play that is perfect for celebrating mothers. It also happens to be my favorite of their offerings to date. Cry it Out, by Molly Smith Metzler, tackles an important conversation that often gets overlooked, and does it with insight, grace, and a whole lot of humor.

The story follows three new mothers from different backgrounds. Jessie (Carissa Meagher), is an attorney who wants to leave the corporate world for spit up and diapers. Her friend Lina (Luisa Frasconi) is a bold, brash healthcare worker who is forced to live with her alcoholic mother-in-law. Outsider Adrienne (Rinabeth Apostol) is an ambitious, high-end jewelry designer who is pressured by her husband, Mitchell (Jason Kuykendall), to behave in the way he thinks a new mother should. Jessie and Lina are neighbors, bound together by a shared backyard, caffeine addiction, and desperate need for adult conversation. As Lina says, “I was talking to my breast pump in there like it was Wilson from Castaway.” They begin meeting every day, baby monitors in hand, and forge an unbreakable bond in the trenches of motherhood. Looking down at them from his perch on the hillside is Mitchell, who compares Jessie’s mothering style to his own wife’s. He decides that the way to get his wife to become more like Jessie and Lina is to impose himself upon them and beg them to take Adrienne into their coffee klatch. They reluctantly agree and, when Adrienne comes for her obligatory visit, soon find out that three is indeed a crowd.

Each performer executes their character’s message flawlessly. Frasconi’s Lina is my favorite. Her rough exterior and lack of Culture Clash at first with Meagher’s calm and educated Jessie, but her ready affection and seriously side-splitting frankness soon make her the audience’s darling. Kuykendall is so endearing and genuine (even as a stalker) as Mitchell that I forgive him for trying to pretend he knows what his wife is going through. Apostol as Adrienne is equal parts prickly, self-absorbed, and impressive.

All of the women conveyed exactly what it is like to experience motherhood. Women are judged for any choice they make. Staying home is a waste of an education. Going to work is selfish. There is no winning, especially when a mother wants to do both. It’s a constant tug-of-war of self-doubt and second guesses that Metzler puts to stage perfectly. This is one that moms don’t want to miss, and one that gives dads some insight, too.

Cry it Out plays at Capital Stage through June 2. More information and tickets may be found online at Capstage.org, by telephone at (916) 995-5464, or in person at the Box Office at 2215 J Street in Sacramento.

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