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• Krannert Center for the Performing Arts »
  500 S. Goodwin Ave. Urbana, IL 61801
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How do you understand if you are well? What do you define as being well? Are the people that you hang out with well? These are questions that may run through Lisa Kron’s head. Kron delivers in this soon-to-be acclaimed play. There are moments when you might laugh, cry, and relate to the character. The audience connects with her journey. This play also gives the audience the realization that they should be grateful for being well.

In this semi-comedic play, a woman introduces herself as Lisa Kron. She is trying to create a play that is supposedly about exploring the idea of wellness, when actually, during the whole play, she is giving her opinion about wellness regarding her relationship between her and her mother. She talks about her experience in the racially tense ‘60s Midwest and uses this experience to explore health and illness in an individual. Different ideas come into the play as more people invade what at first seems like a solo performance.

One of these people is Kron’s mother, Ann Kron. She nags Lisa throughout the play. “The writer who originally played the lead role used her mother as an example,” says Director Tom Mitchell. “In the play, she brings her mother on stage and her mother keeps interrupting the play and complicates things.” When she was young, she was a community activist and she tries to maintain the neighborhood’s diversity. The stage is close up, so you can actually see the play and what’s going on without the actors looking like ants. “It’s a funny play that has interesting ideas and real messages,” Mitchell says, “The play talks about racial integration and community organizing and those topics seem very relevant today.”

Well is a play that will leave you shrouded in thought. As I left the theatre, I asked myself, “What is my opinion on wellness?” According to Mitchell, the play’s idea of a well person is, “being integrated in themselves, so that they take all the parts from their experiences and are able to put them together.” This play will help you realize that there is a difference between being sick and well ­— and also that not every sick person is faking their illness. If you see Kron give her idea of what wellness is, you might discover your own.