|
February
27, 28, March 1, 6, 7, 8
Ida's family is
throwing her a “birthday tea" for her 86th birthday. Their efforts
to be cheerful and make the event a success verge on the desperate.
Ida is racked with pain and feels she has lived too long. Susan, the
prodigal daughter who has been away for 25 years, arrives to find
that her mother has only brief periods of lucidity and appears not
to remember her. After the party is over and the family has
dispersed, it is Katherine, Ida's eldest daughter, who is left to
look after her. Katherine is tortured by the promise she made to her
mother not to let her suffer, and after several bungled attempts, is
finally able to "help" her mother die. When the family finds out
what she has done, a can of worms is opened as they struggle with
their consciences and individual inadequacies. All the old family
prejudices and rivalries are forced out into the open in a sometimes
hilarious, painful and moving picture of a family in turmoil.
|
