For Peter Pan On Her 70th Birthday

Families unite during major life occasions; many of these events are unquestionably happy times – like weddings and births. Others, like deaths, bring out a whole variety of reactions. In Sara Ruhl’s play, a family of five siblings convenes to bear witness to the passing of their father: to reconnect, to remember their lives together, and to comfort each other as their grief gives rise to story-telling and the consideration of their own mortality. As the liquor starts flowing, the heat begins to rise, and long-simmering arguments resurface… and then, something magical happens, something special to the world of theater: the story moves into another realm, where the family explores their feelings of grief, fear and love in a more primal way. These journeys of self-discovery lead them through their mourning and back to their lives in a fuller, richer way.