Independence
by Lee Blessing

Name: Independence
Brand: Lee Blessing
SKU: 9780822205678
Rating: 3.83 (122 reviews)

Off-Broadway

Independence Book Cover — Independence Cover

Highlights

Female

105 mins 1980s All Women Interior Set Contemporary Costumes/Street Clothes

Synopsis

Set in the lifelong home of Evelyn Briggs in the small town of Independence, Iowa, Independence is a powerful, disturbing study of a family divided against itself.

Evelyn’s oldest daughter, Kess, is a university professor who has come home at the request of her sister Jo, who is concerned for Evelyn’s mental health.

Kess, a professed lesbian, wants to cut her family ties once and for all; Jo, an incurable romantic and longtime virgin, is now pregnant; and Sherry, salty-tongued and amoral, wants only to finish high school so she can leave home for good.

In the end, there is no accommodation possible but, instead, only a kind of arbitrary independence for each of the protagonists as they come to realize that each must find her own heaven – or hell – in her own way.

Press Reviews

"Blessing has a hair-trigger sensitivity to what families are saying and doing now, this minute."
— Dallas Times Herald

"A delicate balance of comic and tragic elements."
— Louisville News American

"Mr. Blessing writes admirably well-timed and weighted dialogue, and the play takes the cleverly invented characters through to a chilling end."
— Plays and Players

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Kess Evelyn’s daughter, 33	female	—	Evelyn’s daughter, 33
Jo Evelyn’s daughter, 25	female	—	Evelyn’s daughter, 25
Sherry Evelyn’s daughter, 19	female	—	Evelyn’s daughter, 19
Evelyn Briggs 53	—	—	53