Despite the casting of Washington, the focal character of the play is Lena. Although Denzel Washington is very good as Walter and provides star appeal, it is really Jackson who anchors the characters. However, the three women of the cast are outstanding, each in her own way. Okonedo from the beginning, with mere gestures and posture conveys the poverty and exhaustion that is wearing down the family. Rose is exuberant, sometimes as a young naive girl, sometimes as a maturing woman. Jackson is superb. Even, for a brief moment that she is the intrusive mother-in-law, Jackson handles the role with intelligence and strength. Washington gets the final bow but it is Jackson who is the strength of the show.

Unlike the caring supportive mother of Raisin in the Sun, the mother in Mothers and Sons by Terence McNally is angry and self-absorbed. The play takes places 20 years after McNally’s short work entitled “Andre’s Death,” a tale about a mother dealing with her son’s death from AIDS and confronting his gay lover, Cal. Now years later (McNally changes the dates here a bit) Cal (Frederick Weller) is now married to a younger man Will (Bobby Steggert) and they have a six year old son Bud. Life is considerably different now, as are expectations, especially in the gay community.

Now several months after the death of her husband, Katherine finds herself totally alone and makes an unexpected visit to Cal, ostensibly to rerun a diary belonging to Andre that neither she nor Cal have ever read.

Katherine, played by the master actress Tyne Daly, is obvious in her disproval of the men’s life style and the nature of their relationship and even their honesty with their son. Most importantly, her anger has not abated. She’s angry with Cal, somewhat blaming him for her son’s being gay and, consequently, for his death.

Cal is also still angry at Katherine for not being supportive of her son and for not being with him during his illness and his last months. Weller clenches his teeth during the first several moments of his opening speech, making his first dialogue sound strained.