Relationships between Parents and Children

The often intense, more often complicated relationships between parents and children is the core thematic focus of all three plays in this collection. At times spanning a number of generations, the varied connections between parent and child and that child's child all define and motivate the plays' narrative lines, exploring the effect of love, disappointment, resentment, devotion, obsession, rage and revenge - often all in one play. In "Desire ...," the central parent/child conflicts essentially competitive and grounded in power - specifically, those between the emotionally volatile Eben and his eccentric, controlling father, as well as between Abbie and her murdered baby. The relationship between Eben and his longed for dead mother is something different, anchored in a love that has become obsessive and somewhat unhealthy. This sort of love is also evident in "Interlude ...," in which almost all of the parent-child relationships are...