ELEEMOSYNARY

by Blessing, Lee

A sensitive study of three generations of women - the grandmother Dorthea, who has asserted her independence through strong-willed eccentricity; her brilliant daughter Artie, who has fled the stifling domination of her mother; and Artie’s daughter Echo, a sensitive and intelligent child who has been abandoned by her mother and brought up by Dorthea. The play begins after Dorthea has suffered a stroke, and while Echo has re-established contact with her mother, it is only through gentle, evasive telephone conversations focusing mostly on Echo’s domination of a national spelling contest. But in the end, after Dorthea’s death, both Artie and Echo come to accept their need for each other and summon the courage to try to at last build a life together, despite the perils brought about by years of alienation and estrangement.