The season opener for New Brunswick's George Street Playhouse forces us to consider historical figures in a new light
Like the best historical drama, Rob Urbinati's "Mama's Boy" does not get bogged down in the facts of history, but rather finds in the past that which is human and timeless.
The play, opening the new season at New Brunswick's George Street Playhouse, examines the family life of Lee Harvey Oswald, John F. Kennedy's assassin, with a particular interest in the tense, complicated relationship between him and his mother, Marguerite. Aided by a collection of excellent performances and sharp direction by George Street's artistic director David Saint, Urbinati's play proves less a history lesson than a compelling portrait of lives on the brink.
We first meet Oswald (Michael Goldsmith) in 1962, returning to Texas with a new wife and baby from Russia, where he had been living for the previous three years. Once Lee and his older brother Rob (Miles G. Jackson) have had a chance for back-slapping pleasantries, Marguerite (Betsy Aidem) enters and tension is immediately apparent. She clashes with Lee's Russian-speaking wife, Marina (Laurel Casillo); she chides Rob for not inviting her sooner. Most conspicuously, she insists to Lee her conviction that he is a secret agent who has been living in Russia under the auspices of the United States government.
What other explanation could there be, after all, for him to flee the country and the side of the mother who dotes on him so intensely?
Marguerite's strained psychological turmoil proves to be the focus of "Mama's Boy," which is framed around the Oswald matriarch's desperate efforts to clear her son's name after his murder. From 1964 through the end of her life, the historical Marguerite ardently defended Lee's innocence, most notoriously in February of 1964, three months after Kennedy's assassination, at New York's Town Hall.
"Mama's Boy" opens on this scene, as Marguerite promises proof of the real murderers. The play progresses by zooming in and out of her narrative (the rapid travel across time and location is aided by Michael Anania's projection-based scenic design, which is functional though not especially warm). Over the course of the play, we witness Marguerite's undying love for her son while we also come to question her mental capacities.
This intricate portrait of a determined but crumbling life finds a powerful presentation in Betsy Aidem, who impressively locates the human dimensions of a woman vilified by history and her own family. Her sons and daughter-in-law bristle at what they consider Marguerite's smothering presence, but Aidem makes clear that her character never once waivers in a belief that she is acting in the best interest of her family.
Aidem is perhaps at her best when tensions run highest: Rob shuns her; problems in Lee's marriage escalate; Marguerite struggles for money; but all the while Aidem shows us that her character wholeheartedly believes everything will be work out if only the family would gather around the hearth and home of Momma.
For their parts, Goldsmith, Jackson, and Casillo do well to justify their characters' frustration with Marguerite. Each tries earnestly to accommodate her emotional neediness, but all reach a breaking point. Jackson (returning to George Street after a stellar turn as the title character in "My Name is Asher Lev" last season) is particularly strong in the second act, when Rob must become the head of the family and do everything he can to protect and support his mother despite his overpowering urge to abandon her.
At bottom, "Mama's Boy" is a story about the strains of family, and a play that sets the stage for excellent actors to shine. Saint seems well aware of this latter point, directing with an effectively delicate touch. The result is a moving and compassionate portrait of lives regularly flattened out and simplified by history's narrative.
Mama's Boy
George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, through November 6th.
Tickets available online www.GSPonline.org or by phone (732) 246-7717
Patrick Maley may be reached at patrickjmaley@gmail.com. Find him on Twitter @PatrickJMaley. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.