Well

by Lisa Kron

The acclaimed writer and performer Lisa Kron’s newest work is all about her mom. It explores the dynamics of health, family and community with the story of her mother’s extraordinary ability to heal a changing neighborhood, despite her inability to heal herself. In this solo show with other people in it, Kron asks the provocative Are we responsible for our own illness? But the answers she gets are much more complicated than she bargained for when the play spins dangerously out of control into riotously funny and unexpected territory. Lisa Kron has received numerous honors, including several OBIE Awards, the Cal Arts/Alpert Award, the Bessie Award and the GLAAD Media Award. Ms. Kron lives in New York City and Los Angeles.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Fiction, LGBT, School, Contemporary

112 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2005

Reviews

[Theo Chen · Rating 5 out of 5]

such an amazing play!!!!! lisa kron shook me. this was really good. oof. such a careful deconstruction of form, such a beautiful way of expressing pain and debilitation and difficult things things you are ashamed to say. so astute, so well examined, so smart! but not in a way that like bashes you over the head: and not in a groan ~meta-theatrical!~ way, just unassuming, and really earnest, and deeply profound and moving. wow! i wanna write a play like this. mothers are so complex. i love my mama.

[Kaeli · Rating 1 out of 5]

Look, I knew I was going to struggle based on the fact that it’s an able-bodied person writing about their experience with a loved one’s disability, I did not expect to feel physically sick from the ableism and mistreatment of all disabled people portrayed. I understand that the author probably holds vastly different views than what the play shows but damn as a disabled college student that hurt to read. Please believe disabled people and chronically ill people when they say there is no cure. We are not sick/disabled because we aren’t trying hard enough or want to be absolutely degraded by society.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly engaging entertainment that challenges the conventions of theatrical structure - in a sort of Pirandellian way - while also mixing comedy and pathos. A solo performance piece at odds with the need for others.

This is the kind of play I often enjoy watching in a theater: it's playful, adventurous, it takes on the unexpected while wrestling with a big idea, and ultimately all but pulls out the rug from under its living room setting. It has a main character who is in for an existential surprise.

Since it's experimental in nature, I would think that it plays better than it reads. As a meditation that bridges 'wellness' and 'integration', it's not content with easy answers. It asks us to challenge what we think we know- 'cause it seems there are times when we can be a little too certain of what we know.

[Kelly]

Read for school. justice for joy

[Ruben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, chaotic, and very messy. I loved reading this and was very moved by the end of it all. Beautiful play.

[Olivia Winchester · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really surprised by this play. I have never read anything like it and I definitely enjoyed it! The way it is performed is very interesting, in particular its structure moving from monologue to dialogue, from structured to chaos to resolution, even the space on the stage was very cleverly executed. It asks questions such as 'Why do some people get sick and never get better, when others do?', 'How does racial integration really work?', 'What is the purpose of art?'etc. What I loved most about it, was the fact that there are no answers to these questions, and the beauty in that is emphasised- the beauty in asking these important questions despite there being no resolution! The purpose of art is interrogated as one that appears to be present answers, but this is dismantled. Art instead is presented as providing a closer portrayal of what matters, the differences between us and the things that unite us, where the overlap lies but also were our distinctions, whether they be full of conflict or tension, are respected and beautiful. She asks what community means - I would argue community is the beauty in the chaos, the shared, the overlapped and the way we can be moulded by this, but equally and importantly by the uncomfortable, the tension, the conflict, our different experiences (these things cannot be ignored and tied up in a neat happy ending - the answerable questions, like how do some people become 'Well'?

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel pretty mixed about this. As someone who has spent the majority of the last ten years of my life dealing with chronic health problems, it was really difficult and a little triggering to have to read an entire play from the perspective of an able bodied person who was so incredibly judgmental and horrible towards people who are not perfectly healthy. I have heard so much of this shit in real life, and to hear it as the main mindset of the play with little to no opportunity for the people being judged to speak for themselves was really hard. I enjoyed the way the play was structured - it was unique and creative. But outside of that, I wasn't much of a fan. Making disabled/chronically ill people consistently look like they are crazy or making things up or weak because they can't just decide to be healthy was really frustrating. There are so many more effective ways to talk about this subject. Coming at it from a judgmental, able-bodied perspective was...not it.

[Grace Leneghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tender, yet felt ultimately safe in the end. I think I was waiting for something radical or absurd to happen. Breaking the fourth wall has never really been a favored theatrical device in the types of theatre I gravitate towards; however, it definitely works for what Kron is trying to accomplish here. Lovely last words.

[Mark Cofta · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating "theatrical exploration" of several topics in Lisa Kron's life, with a meta structure that would be great fun to create on stage. "Lisa" tries to tell us about her mother's neighborhood association work and their struggles with allergies, but her mother keeps interrupting until it's not clear who's telling what. I would love to see this produced.

[Cori]

(Play discussion group script #29)

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't say that I'm inclined to read plays, but this was phenomenal. And I'm really bummed to have missed it being performed in town this past Spring. Argh!

[Cody Roecker]

I'm not sure how I feel about this overall, but this was a fascinating examination of Kron's complex relationship with her mother

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Metafiction at its finest

[wiks · Rating 4 out of 5]

'I started to learn how to inhabit my body-that there is an alternative to dragging your body around like a stone and wishing it would disappear.' page 50

[Molly Comer · Rating 5 out of 5]

everything in this world is about mothers and fathers. everything.

[Phoebe · Rating 3 out of 5]

brb, going to hug my mum for at least 45 minutes.

[Isabella Perini · Rating 3 out of 5]

English essay type beat, interesting to look at with the discontinuity between how chronic illness is perceived vs how it is experienced

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really interesting play! The structure is very different, the fourth wall is shattered into a million pieces, and yet somehow it all fits together.

[Daniel Krolik · Rating 4 out of 5]

More amazing writing from Lisa Kron. She does such daring work crossing the line of public and personal, fact and fiction, memory and reality. This is crazy, emotional, beautiful writing. I can't imagine how well it would have played with Kron and the great Jayne Howdyshell.

[Brenda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A woman tries to conduct an "exploration" of sickness, both on the individual and the societal level. Her carefully laid plans are disrupted by the repeated intrusions of her mother, whom she has brought on-stage to illustrate her points. Her play eventually falls apart, revealing a deeper truth than the one she thought she was looking for.

By reading the preface, I thought I was in for a much more radical play than the one that finally unfolded. I was intrigued by the idea of the narrator's mother's possible hypochondria, but that turned out to be a bit of a red herring. I wanted THAT play. This one was more about the trials and tribulations of integration, the reality of how people really get along. The end paragraph was a bit too "happy, happy, up with people sunshine" for me. Not really crazy about this one.

[Cecilia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Playmakers is doing this show in February and I recommend it highly. It's a really enjoyable read, but I expect it to be a fantastic show. Besides it's metatheatrics, it deals with the questions of wellness and sickness being an everydayness vs. an idea that this is something out of the ordinary and there is a wellness to strive for. That this isn't a simple easy issue. You can't just make yourself well. These things are complex and hard to wrap your brain around. Oh yeah, and it's funny.

[Meg Quigley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall, a really beautiful story about what we choose to remember and how hanging on to the past, even if it's not a completely accurate representation of the past, affects our sense of self. I strongly identified with both the mother and daughter in the story and loved the humorous way their strained relationship was explored. A really beautiful "exploration" of memory, reality, illness, and parent-child relationships! A therapeutic and bitter-sweet read.

[Ellie Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This may be my new favourite play! The form of it is so interesting and seems to play into the theme!
I believe that the chaoticness of the play and the unexpectedness is meant to display how illness (or allergies in the play) just turn up out of nowhere and are unpredictable. When none of the actors know what to do because of the unexpected twists and turns, this becomes even more apparent as people who do not face illness like Lisa and Ann.
A very genius and well thought out play!

[Tatiana · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. it's really more the structure here. something i would have liked to see on stage before i saw the inner workings.

2. it's such a small thing, but really...fantastic:

"I though i was going to be a housewife and i thought i'd have kids and i'd have a house to organize and i'd have a husband, who, you know, in my case, would be away at war."

[Brett · Rating 3 out of 5]

i heard lisa read from this at a conference and was just spellbound by her performance and her words. something is lost, of course, in encountering this moving work on the page rather than seeing it unfolding in front of you.

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fascinating play--if that is even the best word to use. Kron manages to create a deeply-affecting portrait of her mother and the relationship between them while at the same time exploding the very theatrical structures that allow her to tell that story.

[Jessy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and heartwrenching at once.

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great play, both clever and tender.

[Gretchen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great play. Now I have to see the play in person, which I imagine would be much better than reading it.

[Jenny Higgins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The girls with mummy issues are gonna LOVE this one (it's me I'm the girl)