Crazy Mama

Starring Linda Purl

Linda Purl plays 16 characters in this tour-de-force about a young girl’s decades-long dream of saving her mother from the soul-crushing grip of mental illness.

Laced with humor and pathos, Crazy Mama is a true story inspired by Ojai resident Sharon Scott Williams’ award-winning memoir, directed by veteran stage and television director and producer Anson Williams.

This exquisitely crafted, emotionally riveting tale begins with young Sharon (Purl) racing home a few days after her 8th birthday for the last piece of cake. But when she enters the kitchen, she finds her mother wielding a knife and lost in a frenzy. As the Sheriff escorts her mother away, the deputy tells Sharon that her mama “not right in the head.” As Sharon’s mother becomes more delusional and becomes lost in the soul-crushing grip of mental illness, Sharon, her father, and teenage brother Spikey, hope and pray for a cure. As Mama continues to be committed to mental institutions, convinced she’s working for the FBI, her father blurs his pain with Kentucky bourbon and her brother struggles with his faith. For 46 years, Sharon lives shackled to her Mama’s pain and her own suffering.

Says Director Williams, “This powerful play is a testament to the steely resilience of the human heart and the enduring nature of hope. Crazy Mama is more than a play; it’s a poetic journey through the labyrinth of love, despair, and redemption that will leave audiences breathless, moved, and profoundly inspired.”

Adds the writer, “I hope that it will reach audiences on a deeply personal level, leaving them to think about mental illness—and their own mothers – as they never have before.”