Reviews for Women of Manhattan

The average rating for Women of Manhattan based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-12-17 00:00:00 Greg Wrench 'Night, Mother is Marsha Norman's play that won the Pulitzer for drama in 1983. Produced the year after Beth Henley won the Pulitzer for Crimes of the Heart, the two women ushered in a renaissance of Southern female play writing. Chilling in its message and delivered with no intermission, 'Night, Mother tells the tale of a mother and daughter grappling to stay afloat in life. Forty-year-old Jessie Cates has battled epilepsy, mental illness, and depression for her entire life. Following her latest episode a year earlier which resulted in her husband Cecil leaving and divorcing her, Jessie has moved back home with her mother Thelma. Even though Jessie diligently catalogues ever item the pair owns, it appears that she has finally turned the corner in her life. Widowed Thelma has come to terms with the fact that she and her husband never loved each other all that much. A woman growing old in an sprawling house, Thelma needs Jessie's companionship and caregiving as much as Jessie needs her. Yet, Jessie was always more like her father, from her interests in fishing and horseback riding to her genetic makeup that is the root cause of her epileptic seizures. As a result, the pair was never as close as mothers and daughters should be. In this short, powerful play, Jessie tells her mother that she is not only contemplating suicide, but that she is about to do it. Both women have baggage lasting for their entire lives, and Thelma in desperation, attempts to talk Jessie out of it. In her tale of Southern grit, Norman brings issues like mental health diseases and suicide to a forefront at a time when society was first becoming aware of the issues at large. First starring Kathy Bates as Jessie, 'Night, Mother most likely delivered as chilling a performance to its initial audience as it does in printed form. Having read many Pulitzer winning plays this year, I rate 'Night, Mother highly, both for its genre of female Southern grit and its message about mental health awareness. A chilling story that runs the gamut of human emotions, I would be interested in seeing a playhouse production of this tale. Even though I prefer charming Southern stories to the grittiness, I rate Marsha Norman's play 4 stars for its grit and rawness.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-02-14 00:00:00 Victoria Dorais In my youth, I had a strange list of comfort films that I would turn to both when I was happy or feeling blue. My mom never understood why I gravitated to A Trip to Bountiful, Mrs. Brown, Remains of the Day, and my special favorite 'night, Mother. I'm sure a part of me likes "sad" things, but I think that even as a youngster, I've always been attracted to simplistic beauty that is both deep and meaningful. It's hard to marry these elements, especially in literature and film, but when I come across them, I have to snatch them up! I am currently reading a literary thriller wherein the victim was murdered in such a way as to call in to question whether it was self-administered. When perusing the victim's bedroom, the uncanny order of the closets lead one of the detectives to question whether the victim had "arranged" things in preparation for death, as is common with many people contemplating suicide. I couldn't help but remember 'night, Mother, which I had no idea was a play'further yet, that it garnered the Pulitzer Prize in 1983. A one-act play spanning a few hours, this quite simply is the story of a woman, Jessie, preparing for her death, and her candid, endearing conversation with her mother, who desperately tries to both understand and dissuade her daughter from taking her life. It is such a beautifully written play, and though it's heavy in scope, I never felt overwhelmed. You find yourself playing the devil's advocate for both sides, as you're forced to see how life and its disappointments can snub the life force out of some people who are too "good" for all of the bad out there. I think the line that just made me lose it was the following, and even reading it now, it just gets to my core! "…I didn't know! I was here with you all the time. How could I know you were so alone?"