“Cry It Out”

Highly Recommended ***** Parenthood! Everyone has their idea ( and ideals) of what the perfect parent should be. Most men, although they feel they were an important part of their children’s lives, forget the first days and weeks of parenting, where they went back to work, leaving their wife home to handle every little detail of rearing their child. In Molly Smith Metzler’s  “Cry It Out”, now on the stage of The Northlight Theatre in Skokie, we get a glimpse into the lives of three families, each having just had a baby. The play in four scenes is filled with comic touches dealing with motherhood ( and just a little bit of fatherhood tossed in for good measure) and is an uninterrupted 100 minutes without an intermission.

The setting for the play is a backyard ( a great design by Andrew Boyce) that allows us to see three different residences in a complex called Manorhaven in Port Washington, on Long Island. From the notes this is a place where the playwright spent some of her time. The first “mom” that we meet is Jessie ( a beautiful character played to perfection by  Darci Nalepa) whose backyard is where the action takes place. The yard adjoining hers is that of Lina ( the very cute Laura Lapidus, who has a great comic flair). They are both working wives who have taken maternity leave and have met as they take their babies to the store, park and the library. Jessie has invited her neighbor Lina, to join her for coffee. These two women, who hail from different backgrounds become close as they talk about the trials and tribulations of one of the hardest jobs in the world- motherhood. Can their lives go back to what they were prior to the baby? Can they return to work? If they do not, what will their lives become?

As we grow to care about both these women and their new-found friendship, they are approached by Mitchell ( played to perfection by Gabriel Ruiz) who as it turns out is also a neighbor, and who also recently had a baby. Well, in fact, it is for his wife, Adrienne ( deftly handled by Kristina Valada-Viars) who has seen these two women meet for coffee and according to Mitchell, would love to join them. He does his best to convince these two “friends” to allow Adrienne to join them, and they decide to allow him to ask her to come at 2:30 p.m. ( to work around her schedule) and get the new coffee-clotch started.

When we meet Adrienne, we see that she does not want to be there at all. She is still a working mom, working from the house instead of the office and with the live-in help and nanny, she can concentrate on her life and her battle with equal rights in her position. Of course, Lina has no feeling toward this woman, who has everything and yet does not share the love of her child with either her or Jessie. Needless to say, the afternoon coffee goes poorly and she leaves in a huff.

Mitchell comes back and tries to smooth things over, but in his conversation we learn that he is uncomfortable with his wife and her handling the child they wanted to raise. As we examine the story deeper, we can see that it is more Mitchell wanting the child than Adrienne, and based on his own life, what he thinks a mother should be to a child. This story takes a close look at how motherhood can  change the personality of the mother, change the family as a whole, how class can differentiate the care and raising of a child ( example- nanny, private schools, day care center, nurse etc) and a mother’s career.

This wonderful, insightful story will hold your interest from start to finish, and you will learn in the next to last scenes a lot more about the thoughts and feelings of Adrienne, and why she is not who you might have thought her to be in earlier scenes. A lesson to be learned- to” not judge a book by its cover” and to listen clearly to what each of the parents says about parenting. It makes a huge difference. This is the quickest 100 minutes of theater you may ever see, probably because you will find yourself “into” the characters ( yes, all of them) and their lives.

The technical portions of this wonderful work make for the perfection on the stage you will see. In addition to Boyce’s set design, we have Stephanie Cluggish (costumes), Paul Toben (lighting) and Kevin O’Donnell (sound).

“Cry It Out” will continue at Northlight Theatre located in the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Blvd, in Skokie ( just south of Golf Rd./Route 58) and on Skokie Blvd. A stone’s throw from Old Orchard Center, thru  June 17th with performances as follows:

Wednesdays  1 p.m. (except 5/30) and 7:30 p.m.

Thursdays  7:30 p.m.

Fridays  8 p.m.

Saturdays  2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Sundays  2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. ( on June 3rd only).

Tickets range from $30- $81 ( students are always $15 ( subject to availability) and can be purchased at the box office, by calling 847-673-6300 or online at www.northlight.org

Special Events re: “Crying It Out”

May 22 at Wilmette Library  1242 Wilmette Avenue and May 30 at Highland Park Library, 494 Laurel Ave.

an Inside look- both of these events are free and open to the public

check out  https://northlight.org/events

Plenty of free parking at Northlight

To see what others are saying, visit www.theatreinchicago.com, go to Review Round-Up and click at “Cry It Out”.