Echo Theatre Company presents the American premiere of Another Home Invasion by award-winning Canadian playwright, Joan MacLeod, from October 8-24, 2010. (The production replaces the slot originally scheduled for Terminus.) The play will be performed in Theatre 134 in the ArtSpace at Crestwood Court. The theater is located in the Crestwood Court shopping center at the corner of Watson and Sappington Roads.
Eighty-year old Jean is living in the same house she and her husband Alec bought more than fifty years ago. Now, he is ailing and the couple is waiting to get into a retirement residence. She has her heart set on a facility where the two can live together with a measure of independence, but Alec's declining health is putting that prospect in jeopardy. As Jean struggles bravely with health-care red tape and her husband's dementia, her vulnerability is underscored by a meth addict who lurks mysteriously on her doorstep. This tour de force one-woman play gives voice to a funny, angry and determined heroine who refuses to allow age, dire circumstances or the system to crush her dignity or the love for her husband.
The play, directed by Echo's artistic director Eric Little, gives voice to the way our society treats the elderly, a seldom dramatized subject. "What's problematic for Jean and a lot of older people is that they're suddenly faced with challenges they can't take care of on their own," said Little. "They don't want to ask for help, but they need it. Unfortunately, then they often have to beg for assistance."
But Little noted that MacCleod's play is not as depressing as it sounds. "Jean is funny, active and inspiring. The love story between Jean and her husband is also very moving. They are truly devoted to each other."
Like the playwright's 2001 The Shape of a Girl ? a look at adolescent bullying ? Another Home Invasion had its origins in a news story about an elderly couple who were separated after 60 years together because of health problems. They both died less than two weeks later.
MacLeod began writing plays in the mid-1980s. Her first full-length work, Toronto, Mississippi featured a mentally handicapped girl with a wayward Elvis-impersonator father. Her 1991 Governor General's Award winner, Amigo's Blue Guitar, examined the experiences of war refugees. Little Sister, which picked up a 1995 Chalmers Award, dealt with teenage anorexia.
Echo Theatre Company is an artist-driven company whose mission is to champion bold, contemporary works that provoke, excite and entertain. In addition to professional productions, Echo develops and nurtures new theatre audiences and artists through the Imagination over Limitations children's hospital outreach, a free play reading series and their Next Generation educational programs.
FOR RESERVATIONS: Tickets are available through Brown Paper Tickets at 1.800.838.3006 and on-line through Echo's website at www.echotheatrecompany.org. For more information, call 314.225.4329.
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