Night, Mother is a Hampstead Theatre original play, written by Marsha Norman. Directed by Roxana Silbert, it is set on a normal Saturday evening at home in rural North America with Thelma (Stockard Channing) and her daughter, Jessie (Rebecca Night). Ti Green’s set is warm and comforting despite the disturbing events that follow; Jessie has calmly decided that tonight she will commit suicide and nothing will change her mind.
The script is good, it touches on many topics; sickness, divorce and stigma and Thelma tries to understand why her daughter is suicidal. It leads us to question whether a person really needs a ‘reason’ to want to end their life, or if it is a decision you simply make; something as easy as getting off a bus if you have had enough of the ride (as Jessie states).
