Playwright Terrence McNally has written a lot of plays. When Mothers and Sons, his 2014 drama currently onstage at the Cincinnati Playhouse, debuted in 2014, it was his 20th Broadway show and his 50th year on Broadway. He’s covered the waterfront with dramas, comedies and musicals. And he’s never been one to dodge from contemporary issues. That’s certainly the case with this play, which closed a year before the Supreme Court’s momentous decision legalizing gay marriage. Although that historic event has slightly reduced the emotional impact of McNally’s play about families and the acceptance of gay relationships, Mothers and Sons reflects past moments that echo across time in the lives of its characters.
Cal Porter (Alvin Keith) is straightening up the sleek, upscale New York apartment he shares with his partner Will Ogden (Ben Cherry) and their son Bud (Austin Vaughan), when an unexpected guest arrives: Katharine Gerard (Stephanie Berry), the mother of his former partner André, a promising young actor who died 20 years earlier, a victim of the AIDS epidemic. Katharine did not approve of her only son’s lifestyle “choice,” and her anger has not been diminished by time. Cal, who supported André throughout his illness and suffered the painful loss, has moved on with his life; Katharine has dropped in unannounced to return André’s diary, which Cal sent to her after his death.
Their tense conversation is not alleviated by the imminent arrival of Will and precocious Bud, who peppers Katharine with probing questions. Will only knows her by reputation, but that’s enough to make him defensive on Cal’s behalf. Conversations seesaw between various characters and expose long-held pain and bitterness.
Director Timothy Douglas added an unspoken dimension to this production: Cal and Katharine are African-American actors. (On Broadway in 2014, Tyne Daly played Katharine in a Tony-nominated performance.) The script makes no mention of race, but Douglas’ decision applies another level of complexity and misunderstanding. Cal and André were the same age — and the same race; Will, who is Caucasian, is 15 years younger. This intriguing twist cranks tensions even tighter, even when it seems odd that Katharine has to ask whether Cal or Will is Bud’s biological father.
Berry’s performance as Katharine is both dignified and harsh. It’s easy to see why her inflexible relationship with André was difficult, and her inability to move on with her feelings makes her all the more dislikable. But Berry renders Katharine with self-loathing tightness: She recognizes how horrendously judgmental she’s been, but she never quite admits her fault. She wants to blame others, even to the point of demanding vengeance, yet she can’t escape her own self-inflicted role in the grief and damage.
As Cal, Keith portrays a man torn between memories of his love for André, now ensconced and perhaps romanticized in the past, and his newfound happiness with a family. He resents the narrower world of the early 1990s that disrespected his relationship, not to mention the callous public health attitudes that made it impossible for André to survive. Katharine’s unexpected visit forces him to recall the tragedy of his past, and it momentarily threatens the balance of his present life.
All seems rather pleasantly resolved — with milk and cookies, no less — but not before McNally’s script has played out numerous debates and sparring on various perspectives and personal recriminations. The play feels a bit too much like a collection of dissertations on anger, but not quite enough to lead logically to or justify the final resolution. Nevertheless, the committed performances by the three adult actors (and the innocent, rapid-fire questions and opinions by Vaughan as Bud) suggest the possibilities that love and parenting might bring to today’s complex social milieu.
MOTHERS AND SONS, produced by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, continues through April 17.
This article appears in Mar 23-30, 2016.
