The Shadow Box

To really appreciate the subtlety of Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer Prize winning play "The Shadow Box," you need to be familiar with Dr. Elizabeth Kubler Ross's five stages of dealing with grief: (1) Denial and Isolation, (2) Anger, (3) Bargaining, (4) Depression, and (5) Acceptance. This is important because the characters in "The Shadow Box" are surely moving from one stage to the next throughout the course of the play. The setting is a California hospital for the terminally ill, what we are all now familiar with as a hospice. In the three cottages we meet three sets of people. In Cottage One there is Joe, a workingman, who is being joined by his wife and son. Cottage Two is being shared by Brian, a failed intellectual who is caught between his homosexual lover, Mark, and his flamboyant ex-wife, Beverly. Finally, in Cottage Three there is Felicity, an ornery old lady with a foul mouth, who suffers the help of her one daughter, Agnes, while waiting for the arrival of her other daughter, Claire.The conceit of "The Shadow Box" is that not only do we watch everyone interact in their own cottages, but periodically each character is questioned, although all we hear of the interviewer is his voice. Each character goes down to the front of the stage and talks about what they are thinking and doing, a nice way of turning psychological turmoil into a dialogue. However, I think the reason this play always manages to touch an audience is not only because of the universality of the theme of the inevitability of death, and how we choose to deal with it, but also because one of the three stories being played out will ring truer than the other for everyone. For me it is the ironic secret behind Felicity's iron determination not to die until Claire arrives. My great aunt lived by pure force of will until her 100th birthday, so the idea of making a contract with your fate clearly speaks to me. Ultimately, "The Shadow Box" is not about dying. As one of the characters says at the end: "They tell you you're dying, and you say all right. But if I AM dying . . . I must still be alive." This is an extremely thoughtful play, but the perceptions are skillfully crafted into the dramatic action. "The Shadow Box" is useful both in terms of drama but also in terms of dealing with the issues of death and dying.

After being asked to perform a scene from this play for a graduate-level gerontology class, I was enamored of the writing and decided to purchase the whole play for a better look.Michael Cristofer delves into the topic of death and dying with everything from kid gloves to bare fists as we follow 3 families into their own personal struggles with death, whether it is the patient's own fears or a family member's denial:Brian is dying of an unnamed illness, and is being cared for by his younger lover, Mark. He gets a visit by his brash party-loving ex-wife Beverly who uses humor to create her own comfort zone. Past, present and future collide as they all state their feelings about what this means to them. Beverly's no-holds-barred character adds a dry element of humor to the play, making some parts almost a black comedy.Maggie is coming to visit her husband Joe in the hospice, and is so far into denial about it that she has not told their teenage son the truth, and refuses to even enter the hospice. Seeing it or speaking about it makes it real, and she's not ready for that.Felicity is aged and has had so many surgeries there's not much of her left. She's being cared for by a middle-aged daughter, Agnes, who is keeping herself just this side of burning out. Felicity receives daily letters from her favorite daughter, Claire, who is apparently on her way to visit the woman who has surpassed all her doctors' expectations on her life expectancy. Through the voice of a phantom "interviewer" who speaks to the characters one by one, we find from the caregiving daughter that Claire actually died in an accident a while ago, and she never told her mother. Agnes has been writing the letters to keep her mother happy until she finally passes. However, we learn that people can negotiate their deaths by waiting for an estranged love one, meaning Agnes has inadvertently prolonged Felicity's process.This play won numerous awards on the stage, and its TV movie adaptation won an Emmy. While this play is about death, the careful exploration gives us a look into our own fears, and the hope that acceptance can be reached while we still are here to live the time we have left. It is a masterpiece of the human experience.

...and it's stuck with me ever since. As far as I know, it was never made into any television or film versions, which is a shame. I recall being very impressed and moved by the storylines, haunted by them, really. I think it will be a very difficult read, depending how close these stories hit home for you, but I'm looking forward to it.

Very powerful piece. Good balance of male and female characters. Would work nicely for college or progressive high school production.

exactly what I wanted. Good description

Great scenes for acting classes

Very moving and interesting play centered around four families and their dying loved ones in a hospice-house setting. Each group deals with death in their own way.

Best price and the item exactly matched the description. Thanks again for being honest about the item. Continue the good work

Very touching