Eleemosynary: A Play

by Lee Blessing

Overview

Staged with utmost simplicity, using platforms and a few props, the play probes into the delicate relationship of three singular women: the grandmother, Dorothea, who has sought to assert her independence through strong-willed eccentricity; her brilliant daughter, Artie (Artemis), who has fled the stifling domination of her mother; and Artie's daughter, Echo, a child of exceptional intellect—and sensitivity—whom Artie has abandoned to an upbringing by Dorothea. As the play begins, Dorothea has suffered a stroke, and while Echo has reestablished contact with her mother, it is only through extended telephone conversations, during which real issues are skirted and their talk is mostly about the precocious Echo's single-minded domination of a national spelling contest. But, in the end, after Dorothea's death, both Artie and Echo come to accept their mutual need and summon the courage to try, at last, to build a life together—despite the risks and terrors that this holds for both of them after so many years of alienation and estrangement.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780822203544
Publisher:	Dramatists Play Service, Incorporated
Publication date:	06/01/1987
Pages:	47
Sales rank:	659,214
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 1.26(h) x 9.00(d)

Editorial Reviews

It is a wonderful job of playwriting.

Minneapolis Star and Tribune

...a play and a production of a caliber rarely seen on the Philadelphia stage...the language is elegant, witty and carefully wrought.

Philadelphia CityPaper

...a funny, perceptive and eloquently written play...

St. Paul Pioneer Press and Dispatch

...an engrossing 95-minute entry—alternately funny and poignant...

Variety