CRY IT OUT

…A Method for Training New Moms…

Produced By: Yes, And! Theatrical Company in partnership with Virginia Repertory Theatre

At: Theatre Gym at VaRep, 114 West Broad Street, RVA 23220

Performances: May 15-31, 2025

Ticket Prices: $40 general admission

Info: Email: yesandrva@gmail.com; Website: yesandrva.org; Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/yesandrva/

A Theater Review by Julinda D. Lewis

Some definitions you might need to know before seeing Cry It Out:

Cry It Out (CIO):  a sleep training technique that involves putting babies in their cribs and leaving them to cry or self-soothe and fall asleep without parental intervention

NoseFrida®: a nasal aspirator or “snot sucker” for babies who do not yet know how to blow their noses

Some plays are just more relatable than others. I’m not sure how this play hits if you’re not a mother (feel free to comment!), but Molly Smith Metzler’s take on motherhood, Cry It Out (2017) is empathetic, relevant, authentic, and hilarious. Just as we warm up to the growing friendship between Jessie (Lindsey Zelli) and Lina (Emily Berry), the playwright throws in not one, not two, but three new plot-changing dynamics.

Both new moms, Jessie is a corporate lawyer married to an unseen spouse who still works in New York City and commutes to their Port Washington, Long Island home. Jessie’s in-laws are “old money” residents and have already pre-paid for their infant granddaughter’s first year at an exclusive daycare. Lina is a hospital receptionist from Long Beach on the South Shore (more urban, more “new money,” more Jersey Shore-ish, if you will) with a somewhat shady past. She, her son, and her partner are living with his mother who has a worrisome habit of disposing of her empty wine boxes in a public dumpster. Jessie is empathetic, a problem solver. Lina is brash, funny. Both are loving mothers and quickly bond, in spite of their differences, over daily coffee meetings while their babies nap.

But discussions of isolation, how to get their babies to sleep, and things like nasal aspirators move to the back seat as the weeks go by and the subject of returning to work becomes increasingly pressing. The economic necessity of mothers returning to work takes on a different, but no less significant, role depending on one’s socio-economic status: where to live; how to pay the bills; career choices and milestones; and childcare.

One day Mitchell (Axle Burtness), a neighbor, whose house overlooks Jessie’s backyard from up on a hilltop disrupts the delicate ecosystem Jessie and Lina have established. Mitchell has seen (spied upon?) the women’s cozy coffee klatches and, feeling concerned about his wife’s adjustment to motherhood, wants his wife Adrienne (played by understudy Erica Hughes on the night I attended) to join them.

The initial meeting is a disaster, and Adrienne subsequently presents an entirely different perspective on new motherhood, work, and society’s perceptions and expectations in general. The ending is quite surprising and reinforces the all-important lesson that motherhood, and families, do not conform to a one-size-fits-all archetype.

Lucretia Marie has directed Cry It Out with sensitivity and an unhurried pacing that assures each of these mothers is heard. Zelli imbues her character with warmth and wisdom even as Jessie herself struggles to navigate these unfamiliar waters. Berry perfectly balances Zelli, with Lina’s heavy eyeliner, thicker accent, and even more colorful language. Hughes brought the tension and surprise, and while Burtness’s character was a caring and loving father, Mitchell was the most emotional of the four parents present – sometimes to the point of being overwhelming.

Nothing much actually happens in Cry It Out. The whole play takes place in Jessie’s sparsely furnished backyard – there’s just a toddler’s playset and table and chair, and later a small patio table with three chairs. (Hm, three chairs, I thought – but there’s only two of them, so…) It’s a play that relies heavily on what’s said, and how it’s said, and who says it. Who but Lina could so convincingly tell a story about going to the door to meet the FedEx delivery man, forgetting to tuck in her breast because she was in the middle of breastfeeding. This reliance on simple, authentic dialogue, I think, places an even greater burden on the actors, who can’t hide behind a pratfall or a prop. Cry It Out makes us think about things that affect most of us, but that we may not often talk about in an open forum. Cry It Out is timely, real, and impactful.

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Julinda D. Lewis is a dancer, minister of dance, teacher, and writer who was born in Brooklyn, NY and currently resides in Eastern Henrico County. When not writing about theater, she teaches dance history at VCU and low impact dance fitness classes to seasoned movers like herself and occasionally gets to perform.

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CRY IT OUT

Written by Molly Smith Metzler

Directed by Lucretia Marie

Cast

Jessie ….. Lindsey Zelli

Lina     ….. Emily Berry

Mitchell ….. Axle Burtness

Adrienne ….. Sara Dabney Tisdale

Understudy Cast

Jessie ….. Tensley Nesbitt

Lina ….. Brittany Martz

Mitchell ….. Sarbajeet Das

Adrienne ….. Erica Hughes

Production Team

Scenic Design – Dasia Gregg

Costume  Design – Erik Mayes

Lighting Design – Kacey Yachuw

Sound Design – John Pratt

Properties Design – Cai Hayner

Dialect Coach – Erica Hughes

Fight Choreography – Axle Burtness

Production Stage Manager & PSM – Crimson Piazza

Assistant Stage Manager – Marcely Villatoro

Technical Director – Ben Burke

YES, AND! THEATRICAL COMPANY

Artistic Director – Maggie Roop

Executive Director – Matt Shofner

Performance Schedule

Thursday, May 15, 2025                 7:30PM          Opening Night

Friday, May 16, 2025                      7:30 PM

Saturday, May 17, 2025                 7:30PM

Friday, May 18, 2025                      7:30PM

Saturday, May 19, 2025                 7:30PM

Sunday, May 20, 2025                    2:00PM          Pay What You Can*

Tuesday, May 21, 2025                  7:30PM         

Thursday, May 22, 2025                 7:30PM

Friday, May 23, 2025                      7:30PM

Saturday, May 24, 2025                 2:00PM

Saturday, May 24, 2025                 7:30PM

Sunday, May 25, 2025                    2:00PM          Pay What You Can*

Tuesday, May 27, 2025                  7:30PM          Industry Night/Pay What You Can*

Thursday, May 29, 2025                 7:30PM          Understudy Night

Friday, May 30, 2025                      7:30PM

Saturday, May 31, 2025                 2:00PM

Saturday, May 31, 2024                 7:30PM          Closing Performance

World Premiere: 2017 Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Tickets

Ticket Prices: $40 general admission; $20 Rush Rickets at the Box Office one hour prior to all performances

*Pay What You Can: $5 suggested minimum at the door; $10 minimum in advance

Run Time

Approximately 1 hour, 40 minutes with one 15-minute intermission

Photos from the Yes, And! Theatrical Co., Facebook page