The out playwright's Dot finds the dark humor in a mother's dementia.
By Brandon Voss
In Colman Domingo’s dark comedy, Dot, opening February 23 at the Vineyard Theatre, three adult children must confront their mother’s dementia when returning to their Philadelphia home for Christmas. Sounds hilarious, right? “It wasn’t a challenge to find the humor,” says the out playwright. “The root of comedy is often pain.”
Domingo’s acting work tends to be more serious — recent credits include AMC’s Fear the Walking Dead, Selma, and the Sundance hit The Birth of a Nation — but the Tony nominee’s work as a playwright is personal. Following A Boy and His Soul, his autobiographical solo show, his play Wild With Happy was inspired by his mother’s passing. With Dot, directed by Tony winner Susan Stroman, the Philadelphia native was inspired by friends who had similar struggles with their mothers.
“I was struck by one story about how my friend was trying to gather her mother’s memories before they went away so she could share them with her son,” he says. “So I started thinking about memory, legacy, and those moments when the person you love no longer knows your name.”
The characters in Dot include an interracial gay couple coping with their own drama. “It may be subversive, but I like to see a lot of different people on stage,” explains the Big Gay Sketch Show alum. “That’s what my world looks like.”
Dot may force audiences to face mortality and call their moms, but Domingo doesn’t want to be a downer. “I just want to raise questions,” he says. “I’m 45, and there are new questions we grapple with as our parents are aging or passing away. How do you move through this? I don’t have the answers.”
Next, February 2016.
Photo: Carol Rosegg