Young Men

Young men are central figures in each of the play’s three plotlines. In the first, the young man is Tom, whose life-threatening illness defines the key motivation for his actions and the experiences of his parents, Harry and Vic. Tom is also the young man in the second plotline, involving Meg and her relationship with her parents. Tom’s participation here is more peripheral than his participation in the first plotline, in that he functions more as a catalyst, a trigger for the conflict that erupts between Meg, her mother Gwen, and her father Jim. That conflict eventually results in at least some degree of resolution, an experience that might not have occurred if Tom, the young man in their lives, had not done what he did.

The third plotline, the story of Coral and her husband Roy, is shaped by the presence of two young...