Mother Grace

What I liked

As stated, I really enjoyed the writing and would love to see where further developement takes this project. Beyond that, I feel there were a few specific casting choices that really stuck out for me. Julia Linger (Young Lilly), Richard Page (Teen Linus) and Linda Nile (Old Lilly) all flourished in their respective roles and enhanced the play tremendously in their time spent on stage by blending comedy, drama and flat out discomfort seamlessly. But the performance that truly stood out for me was that of Christine Viviers (Mother) who, in very limited stage time, completely owned the space. Using every second of her 5-10 minutes in front of the audience to clearly paint a picture of who Mother was. What could easily have been portrayed as an irredeemable villain was instead brought to us as a flawed, albeit abusive, human who was struggling with demons. This came to be very important to me as an audience member as I saw the trickle down effect of her actions become the catalyst for all the actions of our central character throughout the show.

What I didn't like

Beyond the aforementioned characters, I do believe that very specific casting is needed in ALL roles in this play. Each character was very fleshed out in the writing process of this project and all actors must be ready for that challenge. That being said, although I understand it may not service the plot, I personally would’ve enjoyed Linus having to come face to face with some version of his mother a bit later in the play. Not seeing her again after her very early scene made it a bit too easy to forget her immediate impact on Linus.

My overall impression

Mother Grace is a peace that will most definitely leave you in your seat pondering how you should be left feeling after the final lights go out. An extremely brave play written by a new playwright to look out for in Aditya Putcha.