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'Night, Mother is Marsha Norman's play that won the Pulitzer for drama in 1983. Produced the year after Beth Henley won the Pulitzer for Crimes of the Heart, the two women ushered in a renaissance of Southern female play writing. Chilling in its message and delivered with no intermission, 'Night, Mother tells the tale of a mother and daughter grappling to stay afloat in life.

Forty-year-old Jessie Cates has battled epilepsy, mental illness, and depression for her entire life. Following her latest episode a year earlier which resulted in her husband Cecil leaving and divorcing her, Jessie has moved back home with her mother Thelma. Even though Jessie diligently catalogues ever item the pair owns, it appears that she has finally turned the corner in her life.

Widowed Thelma has come to terms with the fact that she and her husband never loved each other all that much. A woman growing old in an sprawling house, Thelma needs Jessie's companionship and caregiving as much as Jessie needs her. Yet, Jessie was always more like her father, from her interests in fishing and horseback riding to her genetic makeup that is the root cause of her epileptic seizures. As a result, the pair was never as close as mothers and daughters should be.

In this short, powerful play, Jessie tells her mother that she is not only contemplating suicide, but that she is about to do it. Both women have baggage lasting for their entire lives, and Thelma in desperation, attempts to talk Jessie out of it. In her tale of Southern grit, Norman brings issues like mental health diseases and suicide to a forefront at a time when society was first becoming aware of the issues at large. First starring Kathy Bates as Jessie, 'Night, Mother most likely delivered as chilling a performance to its initial audience as it does in printed form.

Having read many Pulitzer winning plays this year, I rate 'Night, Mother highly, both for its genre of female Southern grit and its message about mental health awareness. A chilling story that runs the gamut of human emotions, I would be interested in seeing a playhouse production of this tale. Even though I prefer charming Southern stories to the grittiness, I rate Marsha Norman's play 4 stars for its grit and rawness.