Jessie Cates
Jessie is the portrait of a suicidal woman on the verge of middle age. Somewhere in her late 30’s or early 40’s, Jessie is divorced from the man she loves, but didn’t love enough to give up the smoking that was an essential element in his wanting her to leave. She is pale, overweight, epileptic and charged with being the sole caretaker of her strong-minded mother. She can’t hold a job, barely leaves the house and is mother to a son on the verge of becoming a rebel without a cause. ‘night, Mother plays out in real time the final hour and a half of Jessie’s life before she ultimately does goes through a shocking act of suicide.
Thelma Cates
Nearly 60, Thelma is a woman with the kind of mind that views things as being only as she sees them. Until the last few hours of Jessie’s life, nobody has really confronted Thelma over this aspect of her life. During the final 90 minutes with her daughter, Thelma is forced to admit many things that she never thought Jessie would ever find out, including the fact that her daughter’s epilepsy was inherited and not caused by an accident. Even worse is the revelation she is forced to make about the last minutes in the life of Jessie’s father. Naturally loquacious, her aim throughout the evening is to distract her daughter from going through with her horrific plan for self-destruction through the process of a continual conversation that carries them from one subject to the next.
Dawson
Dawson is Jessie’s brother and like the rest of the other characters, he is only mentioned and never actually appears on stage. Jessie is rigidly against her brother showing up before she goes through with the suicide for a very unusual reason: she thinks he’ll make her feel bad for not having killed herself long ago.
Cecil
Jessie’s ex-husband who gave her a choice: quit smoking or lose him. She chose smoking and lost him.
Ricky
Jessie's boy. She does not know where he is and the implication is that he is living the life of a delinquent.
