Eccentricity and outrage rule the day as the Hoffman family meets to sell their late mother’s Upper East Side brownstone and divy up the possessions. It’s a day of high emotion—the ancient dramas of childhood run smack into the fresh grief of mourning. Confusion about their mother’s death and about each of their roles in her illness and demise threatens to escalate into an all-out war. But family dynamics turn on a dime, new alliances form, and unexpected humor, generosity of spirit, and love offer the hope of a different outcome.

What starts out as a day of endings, instead becomes a chance for the masks to come off, as new beginnings become possible. What does it mean to be in midlife and fear you’ve made all the wrong choices? What does it mean to carry unbearable burdens? But also, what does it mean to find faith and beauty in everything that family is—as well as in everything it isn’t…?

SYNOPSIS: It is a week after the death of their mother, and oldest sister ANITA handles everything. She's always been the responsible one in the family, taking care of the others, including her sisters GUINEVERE and SALLY, and their brother TODD. Once upon a time, these four siblings had another sister, Sarah, but she died twenty-five years ago, and since then Anita, has been like a mother to Sarah's illegitimate child, NATHAN.

This day, the one day set aside to decide what will become of their childhood home and all of its contents, has weighed heavily on everyone’s shoulders. Anita, who took on the financial burden of their mother’s long illness, feels she deserves to have her pick of the possessions that remain. Quick to the point and positive she's right, she feels used by her family—sometimes with good reason. Her resentment and anger sometimes drives her into a frenzy.

Anita's sister Guinevere is funny, bright and attractive, but her life isn't working. She is stuck in an unsatisfying marriage and has found herself without any allies. During their mother's illness, Guinevere's fear kept her away from the hospital and guilt tears into Guinevere's dreams. Like a shark, Anita senses Guinevere's vulnerability and is driven to move in for the kill. The friction between the two sisters has a long history, and will ultimately be at the very center of events that threaten to divide the family permanently.

Their sister Sally feels terrible about not having been able to spend much time with their mother during her illness. But the fact that she is almost nine months pregnant, and has four other children plus a husband at home, seemed like insurmountable obstacles. She is sunny, loyal, and always trying to care for others. People often think she is joking when she talks, and she's used to people laughing. But she rarely means to be funny, she just has a very original way of looking at the world.

As for the youngest sibling, Todd, his sisters can seem to disregard his opinions. Though he has recently married a very wealthy woman, his family was not only surprised (shocked even), but they still have trouble thinking of him as rich, let alone successful. But Todd isn't quite as passive as he may seem, he just doesn't know his mind very well. And he has become used to maintaining a silence about his thoughts when he is with his family.

Their nephew Nathan mourns his grandmother perhaps more than anyone. He spent the last couple of years staying home and caring for his “Granny” -- he was the one bathing her, holding her when she would awaken, terrified, in the middlle of the night. He feels guilty that she died, guilty that she lived in pain for so long. and guilty that he couldn't, or wouldn't, do anything to help her. Her death has left him feeling aimless and frightened of the outside world.

Nathan's loyalties are split between Guinevere and Anita. Guinevere was always his buddy, but he feels badly let down by her, and by how little she helped during Granny's long illness. He is sensitive, trusting, and painfully aware of how much he has had to grow up and how much he has lost.

As tempers flare and feelings are hurt through the course of the play, Anita is hell-bent on doing just about anything to have things go her way. But when it seems that victory may be within her grasp, she is forlorn—she wonders not whether this family is going to come out intact, but whether they were ever really a family at all.

In the end, the family does come together -- but at what price -- and will anything really change?

June 22, 2015 Reading

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