The effect of a tragic home environment on three tormented souls—a widow and her two teen-age daughters—is tautly dramatized in … [The Effect of Gamma Rays On Man-In-The-Moon Marigolds. Paul Zindel] has drawn upon his fond recollections of his mother's preposterous schemes for getting rich quick to tell a sad and sometimes funny story. The characters in the play, like the marigolds in the scientific experiment, undergo mutations, some good, some bad. The mother is embittered by a life of disappointments and shattered dreams; a woman scorned and scornful, she is cruel, though capable of compassion. One daughter is beyond hope, jealous and vindictive, full of fears, and subject to convulsive seizures. The other, having been inspired by a science teacher, wins a prize for her experiment on marigolds and discovers there are galaxies out beyond her harsh world which offer her the kind of chance her...