Published On: Mon, Jan 16th, 2012

Have You Hugged Your Mother Today?

Most of us have nothing but warm thoughts and memories of our mothers — most, not all.

“The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds,” running through Jan. 29
at the lovely new and much improved Palm Beach Dramaworks at 201 Clematis St., West
Palm Beach, is about a less-than-ideal mother. You could call Beatrice Hunsdorfer the
mother from hell.

Beatrice is played by Laura Turnbull, one of South Florida’s finest actresses. Furthermore
her brilliant daughter Matilda is played by her own daughter, Arielle Hoffman, a senior at
Coral Springs High School, but a seasoned actress in her own right. Matilda’s older sister
Ruth is played by Skye Coyne, another seasoned young professional.

The girls and their mother live in an unspecified town in a space that was once a
vegetable store. Mother Beatrice is an embittered divorcee whose ex has since died,
leaving her the sole support of her girls.

Mom ekes out a living taking in boarders. The current one is Nanny (Harriet Oser), a
silent, decrepit old woman who shuffles around with the help of a walker.

The play begins with a voiceover soliloquy by Matilda on the magic and the power of the
atom. It is the early 1960s, when many people thought atomic energy could be the answer
to all our woes.

Matilda is using the power of the atom in a different way. With the help of her high
school science teacher she has irradiated marigold seeds with gamma rays to see if the
plants might mutate and grow faster and larger. It’s a science fair project that is the
source of playwright Paul Zindel’s title.

A normal mother would be supportive of her daughter’s efforts to accomplish something
difficult. Not Beatrice. Beatrice belittles Matilda, saying her experiment is foolish and
she is awkward and unattractive.

Beatrice is not much kinder to Ruth, who has already suffered one breakdown and is
fragile at best. All Ruth and her mother have in common is a fondness for cigarettes. Ruth
is developing rapidly, and it is clear her mother is threatened by that.

Out of pain art can emerge. Zindel’s own home life and mother were very difficult.
Through his flights of fancy he was able to soar over grim reality.

So Matilda grows in a most inhospitable climate. No matter what unspeakable cruelties
her mother performs, Matilda manages to remain strong and steadfast.

It is this optimistic spirit of overcoming obstacles that perhaps inspired the committee to
award Zindel the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1971.

Tough as it is, “Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds” is a thing of rough beauty and uplifting
thought, performed by a dream each totally immersed in her role.

Laura Turnbull usually plays sympathetic, even tragic figures. Beatrice is in a sense a
tragic figure, but we are not impressed or depressed. We have seen Beatrices before in
people who blame all their misfortune on others.

Stick around for the curtain call and you see a heartwarming scene of mother and
daughter acknowledging the sheer joy of acting.

Tickets are $55 ($10 students). Call 561-514-4042 or go to
www.palmbeachdramaworks.org.

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