The one-person monologue, in which a performer narrates an elaborate story and often incarnates multiple characters, has the potential to be one of an actor’s showiest opportunities. See how they keep the audience spellbound! Marvel at their ability to shift between personas! And, seriously how do they remember all those lines?

Yet there’s little in the way of awe or showmanship to be found at “My Name is Lucy Barton,” now playing on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre and starring Laura Linney, playing the title character, a hospital bedridden woman recounting a five-day visit from her estranged mother.

The monologue, adapted by Rona Munro from Elizabeth Strout’s 2016 novel, circles around familiar themes of family dysfunction and the sins parents commit unto their children. Information is deliberately withheld and/or cryptically elided — an effect that is presumably meant to create mystery, but mostly just feels annoying. The production, directed by Richard Eyre, soon turns drab and repetitive, with a workmanlike hospital room set (designed by by Bob Crowley) and uninspired video projections (by Luke Halls).

Linney tries her best, and shifts between the mother and daughter characters with an effortless grace — she’s one of those performers who can become an entirely new person just by folding her arms. But you can never shake the feeling that this one-person show would probably have been more effective and interesting as a more traditional drama, with other actors and set changes and something to break up the tedium.

Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, 261 West 47th St., New York. Through Feb. 29. Tickets: online at www.telecharge.com

The Thin Place

For a vastly superior variation on the subject of estranged mothers and daughters, try to snag a ticket to Lucas Hnath’s latest play “The Thin Place,” running until Jan. 26 at Playwright’s Horizons off-Broadway. Hnath, whose star has ascended in recent years with works such as “A Doll’s House, Part 2,” “The Christians” and “Hilary and Clinton,” starts with a sly, borderline-cutesy premise: A troubled young woman (the superb Emily Cass McDonnell) befriends a physic (Randy Danson), in hopes of finding out if her missing mother is dead — even though the psychic is the first to admit that she doesn’t have any real powers.

Each time you think you know where “The Thin Place” is headed, the play — directed by Les Waters — twists off in a fascinating new direction, culminating in a sequence performed almost entirely in darkness, with ever shimmer of light and crackle of sound sending another jolt through the audience. What begins as a clever little ghost story becomes an expansive and challenging consideration of guilt, faith and the way we can never escape our families.

Hnath is a major talent. There’s a case to be made that this is his best play yet.

Playwrights Horizons, 416 West 42nd St., New York. Tickets: online at www.playwrightshorizons.org. Through January 26.