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I didnt feel it.
We begin at a Mommy Baby Meetup in an undefined suburb outside The City.
Three mothers look out through the fourth wall, watching their children in an unseen play area.
Ariana (Maechi Aharanwa) is Megs new bestie.
Shes got three kids (Youre like the mom guru!
Meg gushes) and plenty of opinions on Vicks parenting choices.
For a while,Mothersis all about the familiar competition bubbling up among Vick, Ariana, and Meg.
So my sons half-beige, Vick says, smiling, groping to make conversation with Ty.
Im just saying Im an ally, she adds hastily.
Moench is cataloguing recognizable microaggressions, presumptions, and privileges inside a slightly skewed frame.
But then theres nothing like a literal explosion to get yourself out of a rut.
Halfway throughMothers, the play place the town, the country presumably is hit with some kind of attack.
The game changes: Were no longer inDesperate HousewivesorDance Momsbut in full-onSurvivormode, but for real.
Parkers staging isnt telling the visual story of the plays true stakes.
The space and the characters stay too kempt for too long.
IM GOING TO KILL US BOTH, RIGHT NOW!
That monologue is in fact the last in a series.
(And, equally predictably, the plays only man heads quickly toward monster.)
Mothersis at the Duke on 42nd Street through October 12.
