LAST WEEKEND: This is Not a Play About My Mother

Daina Michelle Griffith & Virginia Wall Gruenert
- Photo by Heather Mull

This weekend is your last chance to catch the Pittsburgh Premiere of ‘WELL’ – a hilarious, heartfelt seriocomedy.

Come join us for our last weekend of performances.  How often do you have the opportunity to enjoy a play in a theater so intimate that you’re not only almost sitting on the stage, but where the actors are blatantly aware of you?

Well, by Lisa Kron, is written in a unique autobiographical style, where Lisa, the daughter, has brought her mother to our stage to ‘make an exploration of universal issues’.  What does that mean?  That means that Lisa, always thinking of herself, is perhaps using her mother a bit as she tells the story of her own life through a play.  But the fun is just beginning!  Ann, the mother, has some different recollections of Lisa’s childhood and early adult years, and she doesn’t hesitate to point those differences out to Lisa. The play gets funnier by the moment as years of pent up questions and resentment begin to unravel in this mother-daughter relationship. 

The other four actors, who play multiple roles ranging from 9-year-old children to adults in an allergy clinic to town’s people rallying for a cause, become confused by the interactions between Lisa and her mother, and go in and out of character as they simultaneously participate in Lisa’s play and interact with Ann.  But there is order to this comical journey as Lisa explores her ‘universal issues’ such as what constitutes wellness and illness, why are some people sick and some people well, how can someone heal a neighborhood - but not be able to heal themselves?

Here’s what others have had to say about this production:

"Virginia Wall Gruenert's miraculous performance as Ann is as amazing as it is because it's all happening in miniature — crafted from sidelong glances, barely audible sighs and slight tremors of emotion. And Daina Michelle Griffith is luminous as the wounded, loving and all-too-human daughter Lisa, trying to make sense of her own life. Griffith does a remarkable job making her journey through the play our journey as well." - City Paper

"...you’ll probably find yourself on the edge of your chair trying to keep up with the shenanigans of the six character cast and the author’s playful penchant for violating all the rules of chronology, place and dimension." - Pittsburgh Owl Scribe 

December 27 and 28 - Pittsburgh Theater Live
Spend some with us this holiday season and join us at our small, intimate theater. Come early and enjoy drinks from The Carnegie Coffee Company. A Pittsburgh theater only 6 miles from downtown. Parking is Free. Tickets are on sale now.

Written by: Lisa Kron
Directed by: Melissa Hill Grande

Starring:Daina Michelle Griffith*, Virginia Wall Gruenert*
Tony Bingham*, Linda Haston*, Alan Bomar Jones*, Susie McGregor-Laine*