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13 Suits: A Mother’s Monologues, produced by the Outer Loop Theater Experience, is a patchwork of dramatic monologues and poems about a mother who lost an adult son, with a throughline story of lighthearted scenes celebrating the son, Patrick Duff, a 30-year-old advertising sales executive tragically killed in a hit-and-run. Written by Kathleen Kerrigan Duff (Patrick’s mother) and Michael Herman (executive director and creative producer of Outer Loop) and directed by Herman, Aviva Katz, and Kate Mullis, the play presents the speeches in English and sometimes adds languages simultaneously.
Unlike The Vagina Monologues, in which Eve Ensler interviewed hundreds of women to write her groundbreaking play, this play reflects one voice and one experience. Several of the more than 14 actors take the aisle seats (good to know if you have mobility concerns) and pop up during the show, often from the back of the theater, and regularly make direct eye contact with the audience. Herman formally introduces the play, announces each poem’s title, acts in some scenes, looms on stage as each woman recites honest reflections of grief and loss, takes a jacket at the end of each monologue, and ends the play with one last speech—all the while strangely pulling focus from these women from beginning to end.
13 Suits: A Mother’s Monologues
Through 12/22: Thu–Sat 7:30 PM, Sun 3 PM; postshow facilitated reflection session Sat 12/14, sensory-friendly performance and facilitated reflection session Sun 12/15; Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark, outerlooptheater.org, pay what you can
A man awkwardly centering himself in this play about a mourning mother was distracting and a disservice to the women it meant to honor, and there did not seem to be a purpose to his presence. Duff deserved to have her thoughtful words stand alone. The play would have benefited from a show-don’t-tell approach. It’s too repetitive in parts and often too affected to be impactful. But they did sing “Sweet Caroline,” so . . .
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