Mothers and Sons

by Terrence McNally

seen at the Ensemble Theatre (Sydney) on 3 September 2015

The play, directed by Sandra Bates (artistic director at the Ensemble since 1986), features Anne Tenney as Katharine, Jason Langley as Cal, Tim Draxl as Will, and Connor Burke or Thomas Fisher as Bud (the latter in this performance).

The Ensemble Theatre has been performing in its converted boatshed in Kirribilli since 1960 (it was founded in 1958); in the early 1980s the venue underwent a major refit, converting it from a theatre-in-the-round to one of banked - and far more comfortable - seats around three sides of a small thrust stage.

This play, set in a New York apartment overlooking Central Park, concerns the visit of Katherine to her deceased son's lover Cal some twenty years after Andre died of Aids. Cal is now married to the younger Will and they have a six-year-old son Bud. The visit is unexpected, and in many ways unwelcome to both hosts and visitor, but in the course of the afternoon old pains and new confusions are addressed, and there is a possibility that Katharine will not remain locked in grief, anger and an innate self-centredness.

There is a certain stagey prolixity in some of the speeches, as the convention of revealing character by extensive self-analytic monologues is employed a little too much; but the characters are nonetheless well-differentiated, and there is a convincing rendition of the difficulties of parenting a bright and inquisitive youngster quite aside from the complications of same-sex couples embarking on the task. Katherine is controlling, disapproving, yet vulnerable. Cal is still grieving for Andre even while he is totally committed to Will and Bud - an experience not uncommon but not often given due recognition. Will in turn must deal with the strains of having an older partner with prior but fully past experiences; these themes are alluded to without being over-emphasised.

The cast was excellent, and the production presents a number of thought-provoking issues without preaching or sensation, allowing the audience to make of them what they will.