"Cry it Out" at Washington University finds that the baby problem is still a problem

Two young new mothers become fast friends as they fight the battles and messes and sleepless nights that surround the babes whom they desperately love. We’re in a Long Island suburb, and the stresses that Lina and Jessie have to deal with are as old as maternity itself—and as modern as today. The play is “Cry it Out,” by Molly Smith Metzler and it was given a very fine production by Washington University’s Performing Arts Department.

These women couldn’t be more different:

• Jessie is an Ivy-educated corporate lawyer on a track to a partnership. Her husband is also on his way up. They’re planning to buy a beach house near the one his parents own. Jessie has decided that she really wants to be a full-time stay-at-home Mom (but she hasn’t yet had the courage to tell this to her husband).

• Lina is working-class. She has a night-school nursing degree, a husband with a lowly job, and a definite Bronxy accent. Lina is living with her mother-in-law. She absolutely must go back to work.

But they’re both stuck at home with babies. The high point of their day is a trip to “Stop-n-Shop”. (They met there over the cantaloupes.) They so need adult companionship. And their friendship blooms as they find time for sharing coffee together in Jessie’s backyard while they juggle their baby monitors.

One day a strange man appears. He’s Mitchell, who lives in a mansion atop a cliff overlooking the neighborhood. He’s super-rich, but he comes begging to these two milk-stained plebs: could they please, please welcome his wife, Adrienne, into their coffee klatches? She, too, is a new mother—but she’s having “problems” bonding with her child. He’s been watching from above and Lina and Jessie seem so happy!

Now I’ve admired this play since I saw it at the 2017 Humana Festival. The Wash U production is every bit as fine as that one. Samantha Campisi gives Lina exactly the right toughness and wit, the right sassy confidence—and just enough of a very believable accent. She makes Lina earthy and uninhibited and quite a delight. (It’s the best role in the show.) Anna Hansen brings an endearing innocence and earnestness to the role of Jessie. She really wants to do the right thing, to help, to be a good mother. But, as is common with so many affluent, educated people, she’s lost confidence in her own instincts. She needs books and pamphlets to teach her the right way to “parent”.

Mitchell is so rich he seems to have quite lost touch with reality. Jacob Elliot gives the role a sort of panicked serenity. And Adrienne! Now there’s a piece of work. She’s a very high-class jewelry designer (like for Macy’s). She is an unwilling guest at the little backyard party and she is ragingly rude. Later, when she learns her husband has been “diagnosing” her with these two women Adrienne is ragingly raging! Sarah Wilkinson brings enormous energy to the role.

Can a modern woman “have it all”? It’s a theme that may have been a bit trendier some years ago when the whatever-eth wave of Feminism was shaming mothers for wanting to stay at home—but the problem is still a problem. A new baby is a real monkey wrench tossed into the machine of a career. Here we see that, though a higher socio-economic position offers mothers a wider horizon of choices, the baby problem is still a problem. The whole damn process of reproduction just wasn’t designed for the convenience or comfort of women. Perhaps Lina is, in the end, the happiest of the three women. She’s burdened with debt and low income and an alcoholic mother-in-law—but any decision she makes is not burdened with guilt.

The set, by Annie Mitnick, is simply perfection: a very realistic suburban house and backyard, complete with scruffy grass and dirt. Costumer Lainie Paris dresses each character to deftly convey their social status. Sound design by Sean Savoie, lighting by Nick Cochran, and properties by Emily Frei all add to the smooth success of this engaging production. It was under the skilled hand of director Andrea Urice.

“Cry It Out” ran at Wash U’s Hotchner Studio from April 18 through 21. Information on future productions is available at the department's web site.