Crazy Mama Theater Review

If You Think You're Crazy, It's Crazy Momma At Ventura's Rubicon Theater

Crazy Mama is not a play, and it's not a show. It is an experience not to be missed. It's a journey across the mind into places we fear for ourselves. It's a witnessing of one person's performance of a family in crisis and a mind torn apart.

 It's a psychological tapestry of the drama and trauma that goes along with mental illness. It is a kaleidoscope of nightmares wrapped in an emotional safety blanket of turmoil and distress. It's a rollercoaster ride that starts at full throttle and never lets up or slows down.

Or is it the gauntlet of personal salvation and redemption we all seek and few ever find?

It's all these things while being a testament to human endurance.

Actress Linda Purl who gained celebrity status fame in the 1970s sit-com Happy Days as Fonzi's girlfriend Ashley Pfister, and followed that with forty years of a stellar acting career stars in this one woman theatrical tornado.

Purl plays every one of nearly a dozen characters with acumen and aplomb. Her ability to rapidly transition from one archetype to another with seamless transitions and transparency dazzles and stuns as she weaves heavy themes of family turmoil, mental anguish, and wanton emotional neglect.

Embodying every role in this Dostoevshy-like mind- trap puts Purl in a class of the great thespians         of Broadway.

In this dramatic telling of Sharon Scott Williams' narrative of her troubled childhood, Williams draws with illustrative cunning to evoke powerful conflicts that while foreign to most are easily relatable.

 It is a hellscape for the main character through whose eyes we see the world as both tragedy and miracle at the exact same time.

Sharon Scott Williams pours into this cascade of emotions the bare truth of mental illness and human being-ness.

I found myself relating to the vulnerability of the main character's turmoil as I identified strongly with the protagonist's need for parental love and familial attention.

This script would be a challenge for an entire cast to effectively execute, mesmerising as a one woman ensemble is a fantasm and a must see.

Crazy Momma is currently at the Rubicon Theater and runs March 26-Aperil 13. Tickets available at rubicontheatre.org

Michael J. Herman is Editor-In-Chief and Critic At Large @ Luxury Media Group.     Reach them at (818) 894-4610