As a cis male with no kids (other than my cats) I’m far from the target audience for “Saints of West Orange County,” but that didn’t stop me from being moved by playwright/performer Kimberly Murray-Patel’s powerful portrait of motherhood’s pains and pleasures. Told from the perspectives of nine women representing a range of communities and classes, all of whom are adapting to child-rearing amid the pandemic, the play presents fractured intersecting monologues on subjects ranging from pregnancy, miscarriage and childbirth (“advice: get the epidural!”) through disposable versus cloth diapers, dinosaur bites, butt-puking and beyond.
The large ensemble — which includes Liz Bernstein, Taylor Byerly, Ruby Dickerson, Emily Lupfer and Charis Watler — generates a warm feeling of maternal support, despite director Valeria Hernández’s blocking only intermittently allowing the actors to interact. The performers all create vivid characterizations with a fine balance of wry humor and relatable regrets. Although the choppy structure doesn’t give everyone the focus they deserve, Saylor Lake stands out as Helena, a pregnant woman who confronts her white privilege on the eve of birthing a biracial baby.
At the play’s dramatic center sits Kristin Marksbury, who gives a fascinatingly hateful performance as Rita, a mother who rejected her gay son on the direct advice of God. The climactic impact of her monstrous monologue is matched only by the cathartic rebuttal empathetically delivered by Billie Jane’s Margaret, the easy-going woman who took her child in. That fiery finale is followed by a coda that’s as soothing as mom’s cooling caress; the triple-punch makes “Saints of West Orange County” a worthy pick for any Fringe patron who is, or has, a mother.
Orlando Fringe Festival: Tickets and times for “The Saints of West Orange County”
Orlando Museum of Art
This article appears in May 15-21, 2024.