Mother, May I

Synopsis: Mother, May I explores the psychological dynamics within an intellectual, upper-middle class family, which many of us would find sadly funny or comically painful, but totally recognizable. Daniel Grunman comes home from the West coast along with his girlfriend, Sarah, for a visit. Both Daniel and his sister Franny have secrets they've been keeping from their parents. Daniel has never revealed his success in the television industry, while Franny has kept hidden her female lover who has also been working as her literary agent. Under a constant barrage of off-handed belittlement and dismissal from their narcissistic mother and persistent offers of financial assistance from their compulsively placating father, Franny and Daniel find themselves reverting to life-long patterns of behavior, with Franny vying for Daniel's position as the favored child. When the secrets come out, Franny executes her sibling coup by regressing into the needy daughter her parents can rescue. Daniel, craving approval from parents capable only of rescue and not of support, loses the battle for their affection when they learn of his success. He goes, allowing the door to close behind him.

Notes: This play won the 2005 Stanley Drama Award for Playwriting. It is slated to get a world premiere at The Strand Theater in Baltimore, MD in September of 2012