Fall to Earth, The

The Fall to Earth starts out as a play in a comic vein: daughter obliged to share not just a motel room but a single bed with her estranged, control-freak mother. Gradually, though, the comedy begins to give way to drama and then horror as the story unfolds.

Joel Drake Johnson is a Chicago-based playwright whose work is now finding favor in Los Angeles; the Rogue Machine Co. recently mounted a previous work of his Four Places. The play was directed by Robin Larsen and starred Roxanne Hart, both of whom have teamed up again on the West Coast premiere of Earth (with Hart serving as co-producer).

JoBeth Williams plays Fay Schorsch, a Midwestern woman who has traveled with her adult daughter, Rachel Browney (Deborah Puette), to "a small American city" on a macabre mission. Kenny, Rachel's younger brother, died here, and now she must visit the morgue to identify his body. What she learns from a policewoman (Ann Noble) is that Kenny committed suicide. The revelation sparks an explosive confrontation between mother and daughter. Old wounds are reopened, bitter words are exchanged, emotions escalate into violence.

What finally becomes clear is that Fay, who has prided herself on being a good, well-meaning mother, is really a terrifying, all-devouring monster. Kenny's act of self-slaughter was the only way he could get free of her.

Johnson's tough, hard-driving play has been well-produced at the Odyssey; designer Tom Buderwitz's generic motel-room is a splendid setting for the mayhem that takes place there; Robin Larsen's direction is taut and incisive, and the three-person cast (with ghostly cameo by Ian Littleworth) works together with remarkable skill and power.