When Caroline Aaron and Matt Doyle signed up to do the Off-Broadway two-hander Conversations With Mother, they thought it would be easy. After all, the play by Matthew Lombardo is about a series of conversations between a gay man and his mother—spanning 50 years.
"When I first got the offer for this, I was like, 'Oh, it's 85 minutes. This will be so easy and breezy.' I'm so used to these, like, big musicals where I'm running around killing myself," says Doyle with a chuckle. But the Tony winner soon found out that a show where you rarely leave the stage is another kind of challenge. “You don’t get a moment to lose focus at all!" he exclaims. "Caroline and I are both finding that if you drop the ball for even the slightest second…then everything gets thrown off. Because it’s also so rhythmic what we’re doing—it’s just this really, really fast comedy. So that can be more mentally draining than anything.”
Over the course of the show, both actors age 50 years. For Doyle that’s easier; he just puts on or takes off an article of clothing. For Aaron, it’s more difficult. During the show, Doyle can see his co-star in the wings of the theatre putting on make-up while three dressers change her wig and outfit. Her longest quick-change is 30 seconds. “It’s a challenge!” she exclaims, especially because it's up to the actors to indicate the passage of time. “I can’t rely on a lot of actor tools that I’m used to—props and sets and all those things. It all has to be generated internally, and your imagination is put into play.”
The acting legend (and former cast member of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) has relished this challenge. And it’s for a new play that the two obviously adore. Conversations With Mother runs until May 11 at Theater 555.
In the play, Aaron plays Maria, who goes from a young mom to an elderly woman, while Doyle plays Bobby from ages eight to a man in his sixties. The stage is bare bones, some chairs and tables, which makes it truly a vehicle for these two actors—aside from scene transitions, they are onstage the entire time, and they are responsible for making sure the audience is attentive and invested for 85 minutes. This kind of show is new to them both, but the subject matter feels extremely familiar.
When Doyle got the offer to do the show, he said yes because Aaron was already attached. And he also said yes because it reminded him of his own close relationship with his mom. “There is a really special bond between gay sons and their mothers,” says Doyle. “You have to have a really tough conversation with them. For me, it was at 16, and then from there, because you’ve shared such a personal thing with them that you’ve had to learn to accept and move forward with—the friendship that blossoms from there is much more intimate...She's my best friend.”
Aaron is a mother of two, a boy and a girl, though neither are queer (“I used to say to my son when he was growing up that I wish he was gay”). But she’s enjoyed being able to showcase a mother figure who was stern but giving, overbearing yet loving to her son. And most crucially, she doesn’t abandon her son when he comes out to her.
Says Aaron: “A lot of people who’ve come, they go, ‘After the first scene, I was like, Oh no, he’s going to tell her he’s gay, and the whole play is going to be about her finally finding a way to accepting that. But she’s going to reject him.’” Conversations With Mother is not that. Instead, it’s about something more complex, and common. “With each decade, [their relationship] stays the same, and it evolves all at the same time. I think we all, as people, feel that in our own lives about our parents as we go along,” says Aaron.
The two have also used moments from their own lives to influence their performance. When Maria gets sick in the play, Aaron channels her own sister, who died of breast cancer. When Doyle has to play Bobby in his 50s and 60s (the actor is 37), he channels his father, John. They also have different approaches to their craft—Doyle tends to work quietly on his character while Aaron continually asks questions. But it's been a learning experience for them both.
Aaron is in her 70s now, but she still continues to work frequently on screen and stage—even traveling for jobs (she was recently in a film The Grotto, directed by her friend Joanna Gleason, which filmed in Los Angeles, and last year, she did Bye Bye Birdie at the Kennedy Center). Aaron says Conversations With Mother has pushed her in new ways, and not just because of the quick changes. "Those [acting] muscles have really grown in the last two months. And those muscles are rarely put to use in film or television," says Aaron. "I remember a long time ago, when Marlon Brando was talking about film acting versus stage acting—when you're in a movie and you're supposed to be freezing, they'll sit you on a block of ice until you start to shiver. When you're in a play, you have to walk on stage under really blaring lights that are probably heating your body temperature up. I have to convince you and have you believe I'm in the North Pole, freezing. And so, that is a demand of your imagination and your imaginary world. And I would say mine has gotten much more muscular over the course of just working on this play, which has been really wonderful."
For his part, Doyle was looking for a substantive project after winning a Tony for Company, which required him to sing and dance—including performing one of the hardest songs in the musical theatre canon ("Getting Married Today"). After Company, he was attached to do a musical about Frank Sinatra, where he played the iconic crooner. But after a workshop in New York last fall, with uncertainty on what was next for Sinatra The Musical, Doyle stepped away: "There were just jobs coming up in front of me that I wanted to pursue. I'm actually really, really happy with the decision. It's just another lesson: that life is so confusing, and you have no idea where you're going to end up next, even when you think you have the most set plan in the world."
Remarks Aaron, warmly, "I really cherish every minute with Matt, because I know for sure I'm never going to be in a musical with him."
Doyle then interjects, "As she's nominated for a musical right now, for the Helen Hayes [Award], c'mon!"
Aaron, ever honest and humble, responds: "For doing Bye Bye Birdie, the one non-singing part."
There is a palpable fondness between the two, which also gives Conversations With Mother a warm and gentle air—the play hinges on the chemistry between the co-stars. It's a connection that, by this point almost two months into the run, is so natural and effortless that they can even tell when their co-star has messed up and can quickly get the show back on track.
"If Matt drops a line, I know exactly how to get us back to where we need to be, and vice versa. And we've both done it," Aaron says, while marveling, "It's very mysterious, I have to say. I don't think I've ever had this kind of instant chemistry and trust on an intuitive level with anybody I've worked with before."
Nods Doyle: "Not having it with people has made this such a breath of fresh air and so easy. I know at this point as an actor, and I'm sure Caroline feels the same way, you learn over time that your job really is showing up to work and listening to the other person and making sure that that you're not selfish. The piece will only survive, and the work will only be better as long as you're listening and staying open to them. And I think we both just had that and knew that from the start."
Adds Aaron: "Absolutely! You nailed it. It's about something bigger than yourself. It's always about the other person, or about the story you're telling or the people you're trying to communicate to."
