A Good Night

Marsha Norman's successful, Pulitzer Prize winning play "'night Mother" ran successfully for several days in Broadway Theatre. The word "'night" in the title is a shortened form of the word 'good night'. The play features only two women: Jessie, a woman in her late thirties or early forties and her mother in her sixties. The duration of the events depicted in the play is only two hours. The story starts at 8:00 PM and ends at 10:00 PM. Norman in her stage description and guide to production of the play wants the production to keep a clock in the room overlooking the audience and make it run throughout the performance. Jessie has just recovered from a mental illness and often falls into epilepsy. For a whole of a year she has not had epilepsy. When the curtain rises, Jessie is looking for a towel for her use and she is asking her mother whether she requires towels for her use. Slowly it is revealed that the daughter is arranging things for her old mother for her nice getting along in her absence. She has informed the suppliers of milk, grocery and medicine that she is taking vacation and will be back after sometime. Notwithstanding to her preparation for a holiday, she is going to commit suicide.

Jessie reveals her decision to her mother and she has already prepared a list of things to be done before she does the act. She looks for her father's gun in the attic and on her mother's enquiry, she says that it is for the prowlers. Her mother Thelma, referred to as Mama, has not heard of robbery in their vicinity. As per the list made the Mama requires manicure. Jessie wants her to be ready for it and urges her mother to be quick as it is getting late for her termination. The mother tries to dissuade her from committing suicide by talking about her son Ricky and her husband Cecil, who lives all alone after the divorce. As the conversation gets along the playwright describes the lives of Ricky, a good for nothing thug, Cecil, the husband who ditched her when he came to know that she was epileptic as she fell off the back of a horse and Dawson her brother who did a lot of help, as Jessie chose to come to live with her mother after the divorce, in carrying Jessie to bed after her epileptic attacks. The mother slowly brings Jessie to normalcy by talking about Dawson's wife and the past life. Jessie remained a spinster for long and the mother made her choose Cecil. Then there was a talk about how Jessie's mother and father got along and how the Mama never loved her husband. It is tantalisingly painful as the mother who hopes that she has won her daughter over that Jessie rushes into the room saying "'night mother' " and the shot of the gun is heard and the mother makes telephone calls to her son and her son-in-law whose number has been left by Jessie for her to make a call, and to her grandson too.

There has been a series of poignant scenes in the play as the mother questions Jessie on how she could allow her to commit suicide when she is informed of it already. She also seeks her advice in disposing of the body of hers. Jessie instructs her mother what to say to the police and what to Dawson, Cecil and Ricky and what to the neighbours. A unique feature of the play is the voicing of a person's decision to commit suicide and a record of what happens in the final moments of one's life. It is a final good night on Jessie's part not only to her mother but also to everyone in her life else.