ASHES & INK

A mother’s anguish and helplessness are at the heart of this deeply tragic play written by Martha Pichey and directed by Alice Jankell.

It’s a woman’s story, a family story, and sadly, a narrative that intrudes on our culture more and more as we witness the pernicious effects of drug addiction. (In 2023, the United States Survey on Drug Use and Health determined that 48.5 million Americans battled a drug abuse disorder).

Ashes & Ink , at the AMT Theater, is playwright Martha Pichey’s first play. Her story is rich with  language and interaction that allows the audience to empathize with each character’s deep fears, needs, wants, and pain. It’s every mother’s worst nightmare. Molly, the main character,  navigates the scary and unpredictable home front, grappling with the grief caused by her husband’s recent death, its effect on her talented 20 something son (an up and coming actor), and his own struggle with drug addiction. 

Trying to move on, she’s involved in a budding romance with a supportive and loving man (Leo), also a widower, and father to eight year old Felix.  Still she experiences the undertow of her conflicted love for her son Quinn and an over-riding nostalgia for their once ideal life when he was a child.  Attempting to manage the anger, frustration, and despair over her sense of responsibility seems futile now that he is an adult with a drug problem. This spills into her apparent inability to love fully in her new relationship with Leo and Felix, (who wants so much to have a new mother after his has also died).

Produced by the Anna L. Weissberger Foundation in association with Paper Birch Productions and AMT Theater, Alice Jankell (Director) compassionately shepherds this ensemble through Pichey’s Ashes and Ink story of love, frustration, and despair. 

Actress and TV star Kathryn Erbe beautifully inhabits the soul of Molly with nuance and sensitivity, displaying waves of passion and despair, as well  glimmers of hope and redemption that tease at her before Quinn trips himself up. Julian Shatkin in the role of the drug addicted son, capably portrays Quinn staggering between an ego of bravado and brilliance as a young actor preparing for auditions, and the ensuing self sabotage that drags him into failure and defeat. 

Javier Molina plays Leo, the new man in Molly’s life and father to eight year old Felix, (sensitively and authentically portrayed by child actor, Rhylee Watson). Leo struggles to support, flirt, love, find balance, and incorporate her into his life with his son.

Tamara Flannagan performs as Molly’s sister and business partner, Bree, who contributes a history of family love but also her added drama of a developing eye disability that will eventually threaten Molly’s financial stability and support system. 

One wonders how much families can endure when faced with impending accidents or suicide that often accompany addiction. In this production, a small hint of hope comes at the very end when Molly survives by retreating into her solitary professional work as an expert ornithologist. She locates some solace by listening to her many collected sound tapes of bird calls coupled with family recordings of Quinn’s innocent babbling baby voice. By clinging to the purity of the natural world, she can revisit her son’s joyous, untainted youth.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Mary Seidman