Household Spirits

by Mia McCullough

A newly blended family spends a nearly disastrous holiday together in their fancy but haunted home in Westchester County, NY.

Erik, a sullen teenager, wants nothing more than to get away from everyone and everything he knows. He’s biding his time, closing himself off from everyone around him with his music and his video games. He hates his self-absorbed step-mother. His father, after being arrested on drunk...

A newly blended family spends a nearly disastrous holiday together in their fancy but haunted home in Westchester County, NY.

Erik, a sullen teenager, wants nothing more than to get away from everyone and everything he knows. He’s biding his time, closing himself off from everyone around him with his music and his video games. He hates his self-absorbed step-mother. His father, after being arrested on drunk driving charges, is completely consumed by early days of recovery from alcoholism and has no time for Erik’s unhappiness. Erik’s step-sister, who was not supposed to be home for the holiday at all, has arrived angry and violated. The housekeeper, Angela, is the only one with time for Erik and yet she does not truly understand him either. But the biggest threat to Erik’s sanity is his dead mother, whose ghost has been wandering the house for years, knitting and poking at Erik’s subconscious.

And then Evelyn, Erik’s step-mother, brings home a life-size rag doll – once promised to her daughter – whose ownership is now a matter of some dispute. The doll becomes the catalyst and the cause of much emotional trauma for the rest of the holiday week. She serves as a hiding place, a source of solace, a means for a dead mother to talk to her son, a sexual surrogate, and both a keeper and revealer of family secrets.

A very dark comedy about mental illness, alcoholism, and household spirits.

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Household Spirits

Recommended by

  • Cheryl Bear: Household Spirits

    A brilliant comedy telling the story of a dysfunctional family and the affect on mental health as one works through the trauma. Well done.

    A brilliant comedy telling the story of a dysfunctional family and the affect on mental health as one works through the trauma. Well done.

Development History

  • Type Workshop, Organization PlayPenn , Year 2012
  • Type Reading, Organization American Theater Company, Year 2008
  • Type Reading, Organization Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Year 2008
  • Type Reading, Organization The Goodman Theatre, New Stages Reading series, Year 2008
  • Type Reading, Organization Chicago Dramatists, Year 2007