Mother Play

A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Mother Play

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  2w, 1m

A Play in Five Evictions
By Paula Vogel

Paula Vogel’s hilarious and heartbreaking semi-autobiographical portrait of a mother and her two children reveals – through five evictions – timeless truths of love, family and forgiveness.

Image: 2024 Second Stage Theater Production (Joan Marcus)

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 1m
  • Duration
    Duration
    105 Minutes
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult
Accolades
Accolades
  • Nominee: Four 2024 Tony Awards, including Best Play
    Nominee: Four 2024 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play
    Nominee: Three 2024 Drama League Awards, including Best Play
    Nominee: Three 2024 Outer Critics Circle Awards, including Outstanding New Broadway Play

Details

Summary
It’s 1962, just outside of D.C., and matriarch Phyllis is supervising her teenage children, Carl and Martha, as they move into a new apartment. Phyllis has strong ideas about what her children need to do and be to succeed, and woe to the child who finds their own path. Bolstered by gin and cigarettes, the family endures – or survives – the changing world around them. Blending flares of imaginative theatricality, surreal farce, and deep tenderness, this beautiful roller coaster ride reveals timeless truths of love, family and forgiveness.
History
Mother Play premiered on Broadway at the Hayes Theater on 25 April 2024. Directed by Tina Landau, the production featured Jessica Lange, Celia Keenan-Bolger and Jim Parsons.
PHYLLIS HERMAN – The Mother. Ages 30s to late 70s/80s.
CARL HERMAN – The Son. Ages 13-37. The genius in the family.
MARTHA HERMAN – The Daughter. Ages 11-50s.
  • Time Period Present Day, New Millennium/21st Century, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s
  • Setting A series of apartments from 1962 to 21st-century America.
  • Features Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes, Period Costumes
  • Additional Features No Intermission
  • Duration 105 Minutes
  • Cautions
    • Alcohol
    • Strong Language
    • Mild Adult Themes
    • Smoking

Media

“A genuinely engaging examination of a family trying to find equilibrium.” – Variety

“Vogel, who loves a dirty joke, knows that laughter is a way of taking things seriously. Sometimes the best way… Thirty or so years ago, Vogel told a reporter, ‘I like theater that makes me feel like it’s a healing.’ That’s what Mother Play is, a balm that comes in cardboard boxes and packing tape. It honors the dead by making them alive again and nurtures the living by providing a place to put a daughter’s love and rage.” – The New York Times

“Painfully honest… The play is a slice of life, served raw. It’s a savage but grudgingly loving portrait of two women stuck together with blood: one who never wanted to be a mother, and one who never chose to be her daughter. ” – TimeOut NY

“A genuinely engaging examination of a family trying to find equilibrium… Mother Play is a mostly devastating narrative about a woman who can neither connect to her children nor adjust to the rapidly changing society around her. However, the narrative doesn’t sit in sadness. Instead, the dialogue boasts a web of humor and wit.” – Variety

“Paula Vogel’s latest work delivers all the humor and poignancy of a Tennessee Williams classic.” – The Wrap

Videos

  • What is Mother Play? youtube thumbnail

    What is Mother Play?

  • Mother Play – Montage youtube thumbnail

    Mother Play – Montage

  • Mother Play – Cast and Crew for Playbill youtube thumbnail

    Mother Play – Cast and Crew for Playbill

  • Mother Play – Inside Broadway Rehearsals youtube thumbnail

    Mother Play – Inside Broadway Rehearsals

Photos

  • Mother Play

    Image: 2024 Second Stage Theater Production (Joan Marcus)

  • Mother Play

    Image: 2024 Second Stage Theater Production (Joan Marcus)

  • Mother Play

    Image: 2024 Second Stage Theater Production (Joan Marcus)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

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Authors

Paula Vogel

Paula Vogel is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright whose plays include Mother Play, Indecent, How I Learned to Drive, The Long Christmas Ride Home, The Mineola Twins, The Baltimore Waltz, Hot ’n’ Throbbing, Desdemona, And Baby Makes Seven, The Oldest Profession and A Civil Wa ...
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