Margin Notes: Maiden Mother Crone

Maiden Mother Crone: a duet of solo plays

Seen on: Thursday, 2/13/25.

Plot and Background

The Pete at The Flea hosts two solo plays, Sugarcoated by Jen Ponton and The Longer My Mother Is Dead The More I Like Her by Deborah Unger. Both pieces are memoir pieces: Sugarcoated, tracking Ponton's journey toward sexual actualization while navigating a fatphobic and heteronormative world; The Longer My Mother navigating Unger's complicated relationship with her recalcitrant mother.

What I Knew Beforehand

A pair of solo plays confronting feminine archetypes.

Thoughts:

There's an unspoken contract between audience and performer/author when it comes to autobiographical solo shows: there will be trauma, and it will be processed. In Ponton's case, it's a series of men--starting with her own father--who refuse to see her worth and whose cruelty trigger a series of dissociations from her own body. With Unger, it comes in the form of a mother's refusal to communicate with or understand her child.

What's surprising in both cases, then, is the joy both performers are able to find within these harsh narratives. Ponton, who starts the show with the unfiltered joy of her seven-year-old self awash on her face, sitting in front of a beautifully frosted pink birthday cake, keeps seeking joy in every age and stage of her journey. Yes, that means her gleaming eyes and cheeks often crumple under new heartbreaks, but somehow we know that her spirit won't be permanently squashed, even if the journey to liberation takes longer than she would like.

Unger's joy comes from a more unexpected source. In her portrayal of her own mother, the mother who becomes likeable only after her own death, she is able to exorcise more than one demon every time the ghost of her mother hijacks her play. And Unger hits that element from moment one, as her mother takes over the prologue to her own show, before Deborah can get a word in edgewise. Through all her frustrations growing up with her mother, and then having to care for her once her mother's health declines, Unger is able to seize the joy in retaking control of the narrative, even when it's in the guise of the mother she couldn't stand in life.

In both plays Ponton and Unger confront the expected archetypical roles for women (thus, the title Maiden Mother Crone) and their own failures to meet society's demands. But what we see in this confrontation is the liberation from these set roles, and an embrace of a messier, happier journey forward. Thus it is that when it is time to hand off the stage from Ponton to Unger, Unger appears in the aisle, leaning forward aggressively with a grumpy "hey you!" and Ponton smiles, grabs a handful of cake, and skips off.

***

Running: Now playing at The Pete at The Flea - Opening: February 14, 2025. Closing: February 23, 2025.
Category: two solo plays
Length: 2 hours, 15 minutes, including intermission.

Creative Team

Playwrights: Jen Ponton (Sugarcoated) and Deborah Unger (The Longer My Mother Is Dead The More I Like Her)
Directors: Tessa Slovis (Sugarcoated) and Dominick Laruffa, Jr. (The Longer My Mother Is Dead The More I Like Her)
Designers: Hayley Garcia Parnell (Lighting), Katie Rosin/Kampfire PR (Publicity), Chelsea Rodriguez (Stage Manager), Elija Bullard and Darielle Shandler (Board Operator), Christian Kenoly (House Manager), Alex Finger (Producer).
Cast: Jen Ponton, Deborah Unger.