Daughter (Karen McCartney) welcomes her mother (Pom Boyd) into her home Joanne Ryan’s In Two Minds.
In Two Minds is a new Irish play about the way a mother and daughter's intimate relationship is tested by mental illness. Playwright Joanne Ryan has constructed a story in which a mother’s behavior, resulting from bipolar disorder, tests her daughter’s resolve, love and support. Daughter (the characters are unnamed) knows she has little control to prevent her mother’s descent into depression, like watching a sinking ship. The play presents two portraits of the bipolar’s emotional toll compassionately but accurately. It is gritty and unflinching.
Daughter (left) comforts her mother as they wait for help at a hospital.
Mother (Pom Boyd) and Daughter (Karen McCartney) are living together in a studio apartment while the mother’s home is being renovated. The renovation, in spite of estimates for completion, stretches on for months, and during that time the mother experiences worsening mental health. The daughter is aware of her mother’s condition and is alert to changes of behavior.
Ryan presents Mother initially as extremely pleasant and caring. As played by Boyd, she is a funny, happy-go-lucky Irish mam. At one point Mother glibly warns her daughter that if she and her boyfriend, Richard, want to start a family they should start planning now. “Early menopause! You and Richard would want to get your skates on now, before it’s too late,” she says.
Her daughter, overly gracious and accommodating, welcomes her mother with open arms. However, Daughter closely monitors her mum’s moods, looking for changes. Ryan drops enough clues that one senses that change is coming, and not for the better.
The details of the mother’s deterioration are apparent. Boyd’s mam expects respect as a person and mother even as she exhibits compulsive behavior, leaving rapid-fire voice-mails for her daughter. She fires the contractors with only a week’s work left. And she looks to the night sky for serenity by seeing “her” stars, claiming them as only hers. “It was the most magical thing you’ve ever seen in your life,” she says to her daughter. “I didn’t know you had those stars here as well.”
She also finds it more difficult to sleep, as Daughter watches helplessly. In spite of her best intentions and hope, the daughter copes with the frustration of watching a loved one grimace in pain as each symptom plays out. The mother owns the physical symptoms, clutching her head in misery, while her daughter absorbs the emotional toll of caring for a loved one in the throes of bipolar disorder.
Ryan’s script also balances the anguish with lighter moments. There are laughs as the mother finds technology confounding: iPhones as timepieces and the mysteries of Zoom calls, mixed with a parent’s concern for an unmarried daughter pursuing a freelance career.
Daughter (left) attends her mother, who is in the grips of a manic episode.
But the disease also creates a horrid person who lashes out at her child and caregiver, spitting out criticism of her lifestyle, fashion, and career. Although an apology is offered later, the daughter asks pointedly, “What do you get out of hurting me so much?”
Director Sarah Jane Scaife makes insightful choices to present the breadth of each character’s personality, e.g., the bonhomie the mother projects from the start and the daughter’s life away from her mum. Scaife builds compassion for Mother’s condition early by allowing her to show her joyful personality and then presents the horror and pain that the disease creates.
The two actors capture the give-and-take of a mother-daughter relationship: a mother rightly expecting respect and deference; a daughter willing to defer to her mother while also wanting to have her own life. Boyd, extraordinary as the mother, projects a confidence in spite of her mental affliction. McCartney as Daughter shows the character’s struggle to balance her concerns and hopes for her career, and her mother’s needs. She is the good daughter caring for her mother sooner than she imagined.
Under Scarfe’s direction, the staging is simple, allowing for a complete focus on the actors. Scene changes are accomplished with nuanced lighting, providing clues as the arc of the illness plays out over the 80-minute show. There are quite a few, since the action covers the course of several months—in spite of contractor’s promises.
The set design, lighting cues, movable screens that signal emotional isolation, and visuals that let the audience into the visions of the characters are all extremely effective. Everything about the production projects intimacy, and in the end, the night stars shine for mother and daughter.
In Two Minds runs through April 20 at 59E59 Theaters (59 East 59th St.). Evening performances are at 7:15 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday; matinees are at 2:15 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For tickets and more information, visit 59e59.org.
