I Remember Mama by John Van Druten (1944)

SYNOPSIS

            This play is based on Kathryn Forbes’s book “Mama’s Bank Account.” It’s the story of how young Katrin becomes a writer. We meet her as a young girl and are introduced to her siblings and immigrant parents as Mama balances the family finances and follow the family through various moments through Katrin’s adolescence. Nels, the only brother, wants to go to high school and the family comes together to figure out how to afford it without going to the bank with success. We meet the aunts who are not well liked, and Mama settles the business of Aunt Trina wanting to marry the mortician without being made fun of. Next comes Great Uncle Chris, the head of the family, who everyone but Mama is a bit afraid of. Youngest girl, Dagmar is sick and needs an operation and Chris takes it as his mission as he always does with children to see her well. Dagmar is successfully operated on, but Mama must sneak into the hospital as a cleaning woman to see her.

Just after Chris passes away peacefully, the family learns that he’s spent all his money paying for medical treatments to keep others from walking with a limp like he did. Trina receives no dowry but happily marries and names her child after him. Through all this, Katrin has been learning and writing, but receives rejection after rejection and gives up on her craft until Mama intervenes. A celebrity writer that Katrin respects is in town and Mama trades her guarded recipes for the authoress to read a few of Katrin’s short stories. Not only does Mama get good feedback for Katrin, she gets the name of the authoress’s agent with instructions for Katrin to send her next work with a recommendation. Katrin finally writes what she knows instead of rephrasing the books she’s read and is paid $500 for the story. The play ends with Katrin reading the play to the family, which begins with the same lines that the play does because Katrin’s wonderful book is about Mama and the family.

 

CHARACTERS

Katrin – Blonde Norwegian-American, Small Frame to Pass as a Child/Teen

Mama – 40, Blonde Norwegian,

Papa – Little Older than 40, Blond Norwegian, Softer Accent than Mama

Dagmar – Child at appox. 8, Blonde Norwegian-American

Christine – Blonde Norwegian-American, Small Frame to Pass as a Child/Teen

Mr. Hyde – 50s, Englishman Seedy, Long-Haired

Nels – 15-19 Depending on Dress, Blond Norwegian-American

Aunt Trina – 40s, Timid, Mouse-like, Pretty, Blonde Norwegian

Aunt Sigrid – Middle Aged, Blonde Norwegian

Aunt Jenny – Middle Aged, Blonde Norwegian

Uncle Chris – Elderly, Black Norwegian (Dark Hair & Eyes with Olive Skin), Powerful, Swarthy, Strongest Norwegian Accent in Show

A Woman – (Uncle Chris’s Unliked Wife)

Mr. Thorkelson – (Aunt Trina’s Husband-to-be)

Arne – (Sigrid’s Son)

Madeline – (Katrin’s Classmate)

Dorothy Schiller – (Katrin’s Classmate Whose Father Owns a Shop)

Florence Dana Moorehead – Middle-Aged, Stout, Dressy, Good-Natured

Dr. Johnson

A Nurse

Another Nurse

Soda Clerk

Bell-Boy

 

POSSIBLE MONOLOGUES

            When Uncle Chris dies, Mama finds his ledger of how her spent his money. She reads aloud the last few names of the children he’s helped by paying their medical bills and the last name is Sigrid/’s son, Arnie. There’s a sweet moment when Mama asks permission of the family to finish the ledger the way the other children’s were, with a satisfying “Walks now.” She even goes a step further and puts that Arnie runs.

 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS

            I personally enjoyed learning about this family and their way of living. It was particularly interesting since so many characters dislike each other, while still being loyal to the family as a whole. I’m also just fond of immigrant stories since they tend to feature the America I’d like our country to be.

            There are a few scenes that feature the cat, Uncle Elizabeth, being held by Dagmar. It’s possible to do the scenes with a stuffed animal in place of a ragdoll cat. The family attempts to euthanize the cat when he’s badly injured in a street fight, but don’t use enough chloroform. Uncle Elizabeth ends up sleeping through the worst of his injures and as far as the play goes, he lives to the end.