Genre:
Dark Comedy
Runtime:
120 - 120 mins
Cast:
1 male(s), 3 female(s), gender-flexible
Synopsis:
Tranquility Disturbed is a full length, two act play about an American family in economic and in old age crisis. Stewart and Lindsay are married, living with their fourteen year old daughter Trarey and Lindsay's mother Barbara. Stewart has recently lost his job so they have sealed up a doorway between two houses, one which Barbara owns and where she used to live. Barbara is 89.
Barbara is going down hill about as fast as Stewart and Lindsay who can't seem to stay afloat after years of using credit cards to bolster them up until Stewart found a new job. Barbara was moved into Stewart and Lindsay's house and now they rent Barbara's home so they can live on the additional income.
Barbara is dying slowly and Stewart, who never wanted to be a care taker, is taking care of his mother-in-law while still trying to raise his daughter Trarey. The household is constantly bombarded by phone calls from creditors both the land line and their cell phones. The dog, who we never see, is constantly announcing someone coming or going and all of these things are driving Stewart to drink.
In addition, Barbara's house is now the only thing that is keeping them all afloat except that she is dying. The play goes through normal days where totally non normal things happen. Barbara is slowly loosing her place in time as her minds lapses into dementia caused by a urine infection. Stewart thinks that the old lady is messing with him and is constantly on alert for her to make some outburst that would prove his theory. Otherwise Stewart writes and tries to sell his writing for additional income.
Barbara goes to a hospital in an ambulance at the end of act one and is much better at the beginning of act two. Act two moves forward day by day in the same rhythm as act one except there is a sense of a greater urgency when Barbara starts to go down hill again until near the end she seems coma like sitting at the dining room table. Stewart thinks she has died and places a kitchen towel over her head since that is the only thing that seems right.
Lindsay and Trarey come home to find Barbara seemingly dead, sitting at the dining room table with the towel. All hell breaks loose as the family phones for another ambulance, another round of credit card phone calls, the dog going nuts until Barbara finally wakes up from her deep sleep.
From there to the end is the process of putting Barbara back in her room so she can watch "Mash", help Trarey to understand about ghosts, death and her grand mother and an added understanding that no matter how old she gets Barbara is still a human being who
deserves the rights and dignity of any human on this earth.
This is a four person play with age ranges from eighty nine to fourteen, a single set with minimal furniture and props.
Notes:
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