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Synopsis: Kate Morgan is 25 years old and dealing with her mother’s death. Her solution has been to write a comedy about cancer and its effects on her family. To perform this show, she has enlisted her father, her brother Tim, and a few of their friends, all of whom she has asked to portray themselves. (A professional actress has been hired to play Mom.) She thinks that everything is running smoothly, but all bets are off when her loved ones break from the script and starts saying how they really feel. The audience watches as the family members alternately clash and cooperate in an effort to resolve their competing version of the same life story.
HISTORY
Playwright Chris Kelly first imagined “How My Mother…” six years ago in the waiting room of Mt. Sinai Hospital. Preparing for his own mother’s eventual death, he thought about her amazing sense of humor and her unending desire to keep everyone around her happy, even in the midst of tragedy. The idea that he might one day write a comedy about cancer has evolved from early drafts of an autobiographical one-man show into the fictionalized family drama being mounted at FringeNYC this summer. The script, shaped by input from friends and relatives and refined through readings hosted on Kelly’s roof, remains deeply personal but has expanded to deliver a broader appeal to its audience. Part tragedy, part comedy, and part eulogy, the piece strives to take the audience on a revealing and personal journey through diagnosis, treatment, funeral, and everything after.