'night, Mother
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'night, Mother is a 1983 play by Marsha Norman about a daughter, Jessie, and her mother, Thelma (referred to as "Mama" in the play). The play opens with Jessie calmly telling Mama that by morning she'll be dead, as she plans to commit suicide that very evening (she makes this revelation all while nonchalantly organizing household items and preparing to do her mother's nails). The subsequent dialogue between Jessie and Mama slowly reveals her reasons for her decision and her life with Mama and how thoroughly she has planned her own death, culminating in a disturbing yet unavoidable climax.
Winner of the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The original production at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts starred Kathy Bates as Jessie and Anne Pitoniak as Mama. The 1986 movie version starred Sissy Spacek and Anne Bancroft as daughter and mother, respectively.Template:Theat-stub