←Recommendations of Family Tree

How do we move forward when the past seems to be always holding us back? How do we deal with scorched-earth family relations? Considine doesn't offer easy answers, but she does provide us with dynamic characters and relationships. Isabella's interior monologues especially are hilarious and heartbreaking.

This play is simply gorgeous: a family drama that is full of as much conflict as it is humor and tenderness. I could watch these characters interact for hours.

Gavin returns home at the behest of his sister to find their mother is slipping away. When home, Gavin and Calista rehash old hurts and reveal new secrets. Meanwhile Isabella, their mother, struggles to communicate with her children and shares instead her thoughts with the audience.

I was really drawn to the character dynamics in this play, and Isabella in particular is an exciting, fresh, and yet haunting character all at once-- a role many actors would love to tackle.

I had the great pleasure of watching a reading of this play and the audience response was incredible. In FAMILY TREE, Erin Considine crafts such an intimate story of generations in a family with the things they've shared and kept hidden. At the center is a woman losing parts of herself but growing at the same time. The playwright shifts between internal monologue and dialogue in such creative ways and there are so many poignant lines that resonate with deeper meaning throughout. This is a piece I can't wait to watch fully staged one day.

This character-driven drama is rich with symbolism and evocative language. I had the pleasure of seeing a reading recently and it resonated deeply with the audience. The treatment of the character with alzheimers was authentic and realistically portrayed without ever straying into melodrama. This is a beautiful and powerful play that I look forward to seeing fully staged!