MOTHERS ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN

SECRETS OF A SOCCER MOM

By Kathleen Clark; directed by Christopher Schario; set designed by Jennifer Madigan; lighting by Bart Garvey; costumes designed by Jonna Klaiber

With: Heather Dilly, Maura O’Brien, and Janet Mitchko

At the Public Theatre in Lewiston, Maine

From October 24 to November 9, 2008

Reviewed by Laurie Meunier Graves

The set of the Public Theatre’s Secrets of a Soccer Mom, while unsurprising, is sure to bring back memories for theatergoers with grown children. The audience faces the edge of a sports field with three sets of bleachers, and each bleacher has a spot staked out with the usual accoutrements-backpacks, water bottles, a camera, a book, and canvas bags. We can only be grateful this play was written well before the 2008 Republican Convention. Otherwise, we’d be facing bleachers on the edge of an ice arena. With this in mind, Astroturf and strewn artificial leaves seemed like a blessing, and the absence of pit bulls and obvious signs of lipstick were further causes for rejoicing.

The Public Theatre’s snappy production of Secrets of a Soccer Mom opens with three mothers-Alison (Heather Dilly), Lynn (Maura O’Brien), and Nancy (Janet Mitchko)-returning to the bleachers after a round of soccer with their eight-year-old sons’ team. This mother/son scrimmage match includes other teams and other mothers, and the action of the play cycles through long periods of waiting punctuated by short bursts of competition, not all of it friendly or maternal. Alison, as lean as a teenaged girl, is dressed in exercise clothes and is ready to play to win against her son and his teammates. But Nancy, more solidly built and markedly unenthusiastic, suggests that they let their sons win, and Lynn, yet even more solidly built and out of breath, readily agrees. Right away, it’s two against one, but even though Lynn and Nancy are better acquainted with each other than they are with Alison, there is clearly no deep friendship between the two women. As is often the case in such circumstances, the two prevail against the one, and it looks as though Alison is going to be the underdog.

However, Alison might be lovely and thin, but she has, as the saying goes, issues, which draw in the other two women, at first in a gossipy kind of way, but then, as the play progresses, in a more sympathetic vein. Her issues make them confront their issues, and the overarching theme is how overwhelmed and conflicted each woman, in her own way, feels about being a stay-at-home mother. Nancy, a former model and a loner, thinks that her child-centered life has taken away all the joy and spontaneity she once had. Lynn, the capable organizer who seems to be involved in every single activity that her children participate in, feels as though she is taken for granted. Alison, young and high-strung, is married to a bullying philanderer, and she dreams of having an affair with the gym teacher. Yet despite their conflicted feelings, the women really do love their children; they just can’t figure out how to create a good life for themselves and a good life for their children at the same time.

Many, many women will know just how Alison, Lynn, and Nancy feel, and this core of emotional honesty keeps the play steady as it alternates between being a sitcom with some very funny moments and a drama with scenes of emotional distress. (I especially loved Nancy’s description of stumbling upon a nude beach in St. Martin and her envy of naked women who speak French.) The women, while types, have enough quirks to make them seem like real people, complete with strengths and flaws. In addition Heather Dilly, Maura O’Brien, and Janet Mitchko do such a fine job of playing Alison, Lynn, and Nancy that the characters become even more vivid. As I watched, I had the strangest notion that I really did know these women from my own years of waiting, waiting, waiting for my children while they participated in their various activities. The three women seemed to hover on the edge of my memory, and the playwright, Kathleen Clark, who apparently drew on her own experiences as a soccer mom, has caught the tenor of modern women’s lives, the constant juggling and questioning, the isolation, and the feeling of not quite measuring up to the standards of being a good mother.

As the play progresses, the women bond, a little more quickly, perhaps, than they would in real life, but understandable given the constraints of stage-time. This bonding, this friendship, eases the awful isolation, and gives each woman at least the promise of a more hopeful life-Alison stands up to her husband, Lynn stands up to her mother-in-law, and Nancy stands up to a team of eight year olds. In the end, Nancy’s lesson might be the most important one of all: Children love it when their mothers are winners.