SLU theater to offer ‘Night, Mother’ shows

The Southeastern Louisiana University theater program will stage its first production of the season, “Night, Mother,” this week in Vonnie Borden Theatre.

Written by American playwright Marsha Norman in 1983, the play will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Tickets are free for SLU students with their ID, $10 for adults and $5 for seniors and students from other universities. The play is considered adult content.

The two-character production features a young woman who is physically unsteady, Jessie Cates, played by Chelsea Krause, of Baton Rouge, and her mother, Thelma Cates, played by Veronica Gutierrez, of New Orleans.

The play begins with Jessie telling her mother she has devised a plan to end her own life. After the announcement, conflict erupts in a life and death struggle between the mother and daughter, said director Chad Winters, instructor in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts.

“It’s a play I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” said Winters. “The subject of suicide is very relevant to our society, and this play examines the subject from a unique perspective.”

“Night, Mother” earned the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1983 and was later adapted for a film starring Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft.

“I hope it will open up some minds to why someone would do something of this nature,” Winters said. “We can learn from it so we might better understand why and perhaps show more compassion to those suffering from depression.”

For more information about the production, contact Winters at [e-mail].