Pubdate: Fri, 28 Mar 2003
Source: Wilmington Morning Star (NC)
Copyright: 2003 Wilmington Morning Star
Contact:  http://www.wilmingtonstar.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500
Author: John Staton

RELATIONSHIPS DRIVE FUNNY 'POT MOM'

When the cast of Pot Mom, the latest play to be produced by downtown 
theater City Stage, got together for an initial script read-through, they 
had a hard time containing their hilarity. "We sat in this room and read it 
(and) we peed our pants," said director Jon Stafford. "But then, when you 
get into it more, it's definitely about some heavy stuff."

By "heavy stuff" Mr. Stafford's not talking about the quality doobage the 
play's characters partake of, he's talking about meaningful life 
situations. It's just that the people involved in those situations happen 
to smoke a whole, whole lot of pot.

But believe it or not, Pot Mom - which opens tonight and was written by Los 
Angeles playwright Justin Tanner, who also penned Zombie Attack!, perhaps 
City Stage's biggest nonmusical hit - isn't just a bunch of weed jokes and 
stoner references. While there is some of that, the play bears little 
resemblance to movies by dope-inspired duo Cheech and Chong or cult flicks 
such as Half-Baked, and it certainly doesn't come off as pro-marijuana.

"I don't think it's really about pot so much," said Nina Repeta, who plays 
Patty, the pot mom in question. "It's more about the relationships."

Patty lives in the suburban wasteland of lower-middle-class California with 
her boyfriend of nine months, truck-driving dope dealer Richard (Kevin 
Scanlon), and her three squabbling kids, approximate ages 18-21. There's 
the petulant Troy (Robert Rogan), who's always baiting Richard, and 
hatefully competitive sisters Lisa (Nicole Milliken) and Lorraine (Jennah 
McKay), who sling barbs at each other and anyone else who happens to be in 
the room.

Patty's hanger-on friend Michelle (Barbara Weetman), who owns a candle 
store "in the crappy part of the mall," is a constant presence in the 
hopped-up household, where pothead bandmates Gene (Jake Steel) and Nick 
(Michael Cassano) occasionally drop in to score grass off Richard.

When Richard, sick of his stash being pinched by Patty's kids, puts a lock 
on his greenhouse/supply room, tensions escalate. Throw in an illicit 
romance (you'll have to guess between whom) and Lorraine's social climbing 
- - she brings snooty friends Carla (Amanda Richardson) and Danielle (Heather 
Kroel) over to meet her drug-addled family in one hilarious scene - and 
you've got a play without an incredibly strong plot but with well-drawn 
characters and some biting social commentary.

"I think a (large percentage) of America is this group of people," said Mr. 
Stafford, who, along with Ms. Weetman, saw the play during its opening run 
in Los Angeles at the tiny Cast Theater in 1994.

Essentially, Pot Mom is about how the spaced-out, unemployed Patty, a not 
badly intentioned woman, has unwittingly helped to mess up the lives of 
everyone who loves her by refusing to deal with anything. Conflicts simmer 
all around her, until, inevitably, they boil over simultaneously.

"Patty's a really nice person," said Mr. Rogan, who's playing Patty's son 
Troy. "But she's a pretty bad mom."

Pot Mom has been produced sitcom-style before, at the Steppenwolf Theatre 
in Chicago in 1998 (it's easy to see how the play could be interpreted as 
Married with Children . . . on Dope!), but it was a production that missed 
the mark, according to its author. "They thought I was a sun-soaked surfer 
guy, and they had surfer music on the soundtrack," Mr. Tanner told The Los 
Angeles Times. "The reviews said it was like a sitcom without jokes."

There are plenty of jokes in Pot Mom, of course; they just aren't the most 
important thing.

As with any play, the characters and their relationships are the key to 
drama and, for the most part, Mr. Tanner's writing makes these aspects even 
stronger than the stuff his characters smoke, creating a symbolic haze that 
threatens to obscure, and perhaps ultimately envelop, their lives.
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