A Mother on Trial in ‘Kathy Goode’

The premise of Paul Coates’ play “Kathy Goode,” at the Colony Studio Theatre, sounds promising: A young mother, on trial for the murder of her daughter, wrangles with the legal system while trying to cope with the ravaging effect her arrest and trial has had on her family.

The timing for such a play seems absolutely right. Ever since Susan Smith confessed to sending her two little boys to a watery grave, the nation has been gripped by the unanswerable question: What possesses a mother, whose imperative is to protect her young, to instead destroy them?

Unfortunately, Coates’ dreadfully muddled play fails to address this enigma. In fact, Coates manages to evade such provocative issues altogether. As good as her name, Kathy (Kristina Coggins) is just a typical mom being crushed by the system. The murder of her daughter appears to have been as senseless and random as Coates’ story.

Perhaps sensing the futility of their efforts, director Scott Segall and his cast go into hard-sell mode--but succeed only in making Coates’ already overblown piece even more histrionic.

What could have been a fascinating explication of an age-old dilemma disintegrates into a pointless psychodrama, distinguished only by its serendipitous topicality.

* “Kathy Goode,” Colony Studio Theatre, 1944 Riverside Drive, Los Angeles. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Ends April 2. $18-$20. (213) 665-3011. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.