‘night, Mother’ at Home Made Theater faces the unfathomable
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. >> People attend theater for different reasons. Some go for entertainment. Others go to be enlightened.
“night, Mother,” which Home Made Theater opens tomorrow night and runs weekends through April 2, is definitely enlightening in intent and hopefully cathartic for many.
Its plot revolves around a young woman who, at the start of the play, tells her mother she is about to commit suicide. For approximately 90 minutes the daughter explains her decision.
It’s a horrid thought made more disturbing in that her reasoning seems to be logically thought out. It’s easy to understand why she doesn’t want to go on living.
Directing”’ night, Mother” is Jonathan Heftner. He’s proud that the subject of suicide is not typical community theater fare as he says, “I’m not interested in doing comfortable theater.”
He reasons that the sixweek rehearsal period and a two-weekend run, along with countless hours of preshow preparation for everyone in the production is a lot of time taken away from family. He feels it should be used to produce a play that might help someone.
Though he prefers edgy theater, he also supports the idea of theater as pure entertainment. Indeed, his involvement with Home Made Theater started when he was about 14 years old and played the boy in HMT’s production of “On Golden Pond.” One of his more recent roles as an actor at HMT was in the Neil Simon comic farce, “Rumors.”
After graduating from Saratoga High School in 1989 and SUNY Geneseo in 1993, he spent 15 years working in all aspects of the entertainment industry. He returned home several years ago to raise his family and start a business focusing on team building and working on personal growth for individuals.
Heftner believes his extensive experience with theater, combined with his professional skills in human behavior, are ideal for directing “night, Mother.”
He spoke of making sure the presentation finds all the tension- releasing humor in the play without diminishing the importance of the material. “It is not our goal to traumatize the audience,” he says.
To this goal and for the benefit of the two actors, Heftner says they have spent many hours going over every line in the play in order to find the issues in the play that might drive a person to want to kill themselves.
“We discovered it takes
about 3/4 of the script before the mother starts to hear her daughter. She uses every defense mechanism to avoid facing the reality of the situation. Then the flood gates of guilt open.”
The guilt, he explains, is based on a common parental issue. “It’s common for a parent to ask ‘If my child fails, is it about me?’”
Heftner hopes the theme of suicide in the play does not turn people away.
Eric Rudy, HMT’s Producing and Artistic Director agrees. “It is our hope that this very human play opens conversations that get people talking about this sensitive but important social issue.” In fact, there are a number of audience talkbacks scheduled and suicide prevention material will be available in the lobby.
Heftner says the same thing in a more blunt manner. “You can’t solve a problem until you face it. I believe ‘night, Mother’ is a safe way to start to understand a very serious social problem.”
“night, Mother” plays at the Dee Sarno Theatre in the Saratoga Arts Center Friday to Sunday this week and next. For tickets and schedule information call (518) 587-4427 or Homemadetheater.org