Literature Network » Maxim Gorky

A mother and a star; Russian matriarch and imperious diva crack the whip

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From: Pacific Sun
Date: 20040609
Author:Anonymous

Talk is cheap in Constance Congdon's adaptation of Maxim Gorky's 1910 play, A Mother, but motherhood carries a price. With an accent out of a Sopranos episode and an attitude to match, Olympia Dukakis is more than A mother, she's THE mother--a woman who will protect her children if it kills them. Dukakis creates a conniving and self-aware Vassa, a comic monster, fun to watch although hard to take seriously.

It's 1909 and Vassa's husband is dying in the next room as she schemes to safeguard his property for her sons. Both of these sons get a delicious run from actors John Keating and Reg ...

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