'MOMologues' readers' theater takes the stage in Havre

Havre Daily News staff

The local acting troupe is bringing a story described as an honest, funny look at motherhood to the stage in Havre this weekend with a readers' theater presentation of Lisa Rafferty's "The MOMologues."

"This original comedy about motherhood rips away the gauzy mask of parenthood to reveal what all mothers know but don't always talk about: It's overwhelming and exhausting, but also very, very funny," Montana Actors' Theatre wrote on its Facebook page about the production.

The MOMologues website says the play was written by Rafferty after she searched in vain for a play "that offered an honest, funny look at motherhood. Lisa teamed up with fellow moms Stefanie Cloutier and Sheila Eppolito to write a show based on stories and experiences from the trenches of raising eight children among them."

The three wrote a one-act play that followed four women through the first chapters of pregnancy, "attempts at conception, pregnancy, labor and delivery and adjusting to life with a newborn," the site says.

The play debuted in 2002 near Boston to a sold-out audience of moms, "who howled in appreciation," it added.

It has been performed more than 1,000 times since, the website says, including overseas, and the authors have added two sequels.

The readers' theater performance in Havre, directed by Valery Guysant, has 12 cast members seated at a table performing a - sometimes animated - reading of the script.

The play runs Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with the doors to the Little Theatre on the west end of Cowan Hall at Montana State University-Northern and the Backstage Lounge opening at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets, which are $10 for adults and $5 for students, senior citizens and members of the military, are available at Fivehead's, Computer Center, Bear Paw Meats or online through the Montana Actors' Theatre website at http://www.havredailynews.com/.

Northern students gain free admittance with a valid student ID card.