Theater review by Melissa Rose Bernardo
Three generations of women navigate intense, complex mother-daughter bonds in Caroline, an alternately quiet and explosive drama by Preston Max Allen. At the center is doting, determined single mom Maddie (Chloë Grace Moretz, marvelous), who’s taking her 9-year-old daughter, Caroline (River Lipe-Smith), out of a clearly dangerous domestic situation; Caroline’s broken arm is our clue. Their destination: Maddie’s parents’ home in Illinois. “You have parents?” Caroline asks. “I thought they were dead.” Grandma Rhea (Transparent’s Amy Landecker) welcomes the pair, but with extreme caution. Her last glimpse of Maddie was about 10 years and $70,000 ago—long before Maddie got sober, or became a mom herself.
Caroline | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid
Maddie swallows her pride because she needs her parents’ assistance: Caroline is trans, and day-to-day life has been getting complicated—and dangerous—back home in West Virginia; she needs to find a school, doctors, therapy. “I just need help. I need help, with this. I need you to help me,” Maddie pleads. Rhea’s reaction is surprisingly nonchalant: “Sylvia Defret’s grandson is transgender. He’s in college now, he’s doing very well. We don’t have any sort of problem with this.”
One wonderful thing about Allen’s play is that Caroline’s transness isn’t a source of rancor or debate—only of practical questions, mostly from Caroline, who’s in a question-everything phase: “Where am I gonna go to the bathroom?” “Do I have to quit gymnastics?” (Also, now with an amusing new resonance: “What does Tylenol do exactly?”) Lipe-Smith perfectly captures Caroline’s inquisitiveness, smarts and sensitivity; note how they pause thoughtfully, then end their questions with an upward inflection.
Caroline | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid
The real battle is between Maddie and Rhea. Rhea holds all the cards—money, housing, access—and Maddie becomes a different person when she enters her childhood home. All the trauma of her teen years comes flooding back, and you can see Moretz’s body tense up; sometimes, she looks like she might collapse from the sheer weight of her memories.
One 90-minute act is just the right length for Caroline, and thanks to David Cromer’s zoom-lens direction, we develop an instant attachment to these characters. Allen doesn’t tie anything up neatly, but somehow we know that Caroline will be just fine. She’s the smartest, most clearheaded one of them all.
Caroline. MCC Theater (Off Broadway). By Preston Max Allen. Directed by David Cromer. With Amy Landecker, Chloë Grace Moretz, River Lipe-Smith. 1hr 30mins. No intermission.
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Caroline | Photograph: Courtesy Emilio Madrid
