FAMILY, FORGETFULNESS & FORGIVENESS: ADULT CHILDREN, AGING PARENTS

RTR explores age, estrangement and the journey to heart and home in Vivien, by Percy Granger, and Home, by Laura Cahill, directed by Bob Martin.

In Vivien an elderly man’s son visits him in a psychiatric nursing home. Using memory and forgetfulness, the two men feel their way toward and away from each other, never sure if connection is even possible. In Home a divorced daughter returns to live with her mother after running off 25 years before. Her mother has aged and changed, and no one knows if the two can turn the equally-aging house into a home.

“The relationship between older parents and their adult children is a tender and delicate balancing act,” says Martin. “Both of these stories treat the subject with humor and hard truth – bittersweet, funny, and very familiar.” Martin says audiences of all ages will relate to the stories of the stubborn, sometimes frightened elders and their flawed, loving adult children.

Cast includes Jane Clark, Vana O’Brien and Gary Powell, and Josh Rengert.