Lawson Taitte

Actors love to be loved. So Sue Loncar and Matt Savins have a lot of uncomfortable moments in Marvin's Room at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas

AMY CONN-GUTIERREZ/Special Contributor

Sue Loncar and Matt Savins play an unsympathetic mother and a hostile son with a combative, difficult relationship.

In Scott McPherson's mordantly funny drama, we first see Lee, a single mother, visiting her son Hank in a mental hospital. He's as hostile as they come, and the harsh and unsympathetic Lee has completely lost whatever patience she might have had with him.

"It's hard to play someone so unlike you," Ms. Loncar says. "I pride myself on being a mother, and I just have to realize she's not a very good one. I surrender to the realization that she just doesn't have the skills."

If Ms. Loncar is the nurturing type, Mr. Savins tends to be easygoing – but everybody knows someone like Hank.

"I drew a lot of inspiration – the manipulation, the standoffishness," Mr. Savins says. "What he wants is for his mom to just face up and see him."

For Ms. Loncar, the most dreaded moment comes during the big monologue at Disney World toward the end of the play. Lee has to tell Hank the truth about his abusive father and shatter the few illusions the boy has left.

"I could not come to terms with the way this mother blamed her child for the father's violence," Ms. Loncar says.

Still, Lee and Hank come to an understanding by the end of the play. Lee has mellowed, and Hank wants to turn his life around. So eventually Ms. Loncar and Mr. Savins get some warm fuzzies from the audience after all.

Ms. Loncar, who is also Contemporary's artistic director, says, "I try to pick plays that people can really relate to – and they do with this one."

One way or another.

PLAN YOUR LIFE Through April 27 at Contemporary Theatre of Dallas.

$27 to $32. 214-828-0094, www.contemporarytheatreof dallas.com.

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