It’s 1999, and an all-women team at a boutique Long Island Laboratory have been the first to successfully perfect dog cloning. Will their breakthrough further scientific endeavor?
Maria, the undocumented housekeeper to Dr. Chapin, the lab’s owner, is dying, and young Clair, the dog carer, wants to make sure that little Lily, Maria’s daughter, has a good mother to fall back on. Dr. Chapin fills the bill economically, but Clair worries that emotionally Lily will come up short. What would happen, she asks the other scientists, if they were to apply their techniques of dog cloning to humans and clone the dying Maria so Lily will, in time, have her mother back?
Motherly Love, explores the ethical limitations of modern science as it considers what it takes to be a mother.
SYNOPSIS
In Motherly Love, I was interested in exploring what happens when technical advances in science and medicine overtake more fundamental understandings of their philosophical, emotional, and practical implications. The play does this through the lens of research scientists whose motivations range from noble to crass. Lies of a Cell is a turn on the name of a book of essays written by Dr. Lewis Thomas in 1974 – The Lives of a Cell. His observations about life, death and cells, and their remarkable capacities, remain relevant to scientific study today. Thinking about how medical science has evolved since its publication, and knowing more as we do about the lapses in ethics that have dogged medicine (e.g. Tuskegee, Henrietta Lacks), it was an appealing title on which to pun. The play’s story line about a research team’s evolution from cloning dogs (which began in 1999 when the play opens) to cloning a human (which scientists have not yet managed, but are likely close) rests on hiccoughs in relationships between mothers (ersatz and not) and daughters.
BACKGROUND ON THE PLAY
Suzanne Chapin – 40ish in 1999, a biologist and doctor. Blue bloodish.
Maria Rivera – Mid 20’s in 1999, housekeeper. Mexican. Raven black hair.
Lily Rivera – Age 5 in 1999, Maria’s daughter.
Ann McGiver – Early 30’s in 1999, a biologist. A Scot with a thick brogue and bright red hair.
Clair O’Shea – 20ish in 1999. Working class. A brunette.
Little Maria O’Shea – Born 2000. Clair’s daughter with genetic material contributed from Maria and Ann. She has a streak of bright red hair exactly the shade of Ann’s.
Lucinda Lacks – Late 20’s in 1999. African-American. A veterinarian.
3 puppies – Identical, all brown. (stuffed)
3 puppies – Identical, brown with white blotches throughout.(stuffed)
1 dog – Live. (cameo)
CHARACTER BREAKDOWN
Six adult actors play all parts except that of Little Maria as young girl who is played by a child actor. As a teenager, Little Maria is played by the actor who plays Maria. Costumes denote Lily’s age.
The characters age 20 years through the play. Setting is a laboratory somewhere in Long Island.
ADDITIONAL NEEDS
Staged reading at Primary Stages
Directed by Molly Heller
