Word: th
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...case you don't get th' point about th' "disease," th' mother acts real paranoid about germs, n' a lamb gets maggots. Also, there's an impending plague of another sort: what th' son calls a "zombie invasion," zombies bein' all th' slick nobodies who're buyin' up land in th' West n' turnin' it into housin' developments n' shoppin' malls...
There's also some weird Christian symbolism. Th' identities of th' son n' th' father merge. Dad's name is Weston (Western?); Junior's is Wesley. In th' third n' final act, Dad talks about feelin' "reborn," like it was "Christmas," n' he baptizes himself in a tub of cold water. Junior does th' same, puts on Dad's clothes, n' Mom confuses him for his father. Junior also goes out n' slaughters a lamb n' practically washes himself in lamb's blood. Beats me what all this Christian symbolism is doin' in a play whose characters are as poor...
...ANYWAYS, th' family consists of Weston (Donal Logue), Wesley (Daniel O'Keefe), mother Ella (Holly Cate) n' daughter Emma (Ellen Bledsoe). Weston is the drunken, violent father whose debts n' poor judgment are th' reason th' family is up shit creek t' begin with. Wesley is an arrogant chip off th' ol' blockhead, another one of those Shepard man-children who wears flannel shirts n' still has strings of model airplanes hangin' from th' ceiling in his room...
...Emma is th' only one in th' family who has more brains than God gave a chicken, but she doesn't realize that she, too, is doomed 'cause she carries Dad's "poison" in her veins. Ella, of course, doesn't carry it, but she makes up for it by bein' self-righteously angry at th' rest of her brood. This is th' archetypal Western family, says Shepard; th' Cleavers or th' Huxtables they...
...might guess, Weston n' Ella don't get along too well. Each is tryin't' sell th' ranch from under th' other's nose--Weston t' a tacky nightclub owner named Ellis (Caroline Bicks), Ella t' a slick lawyer who's th' head zombie (Ethan Mintz). This sounds like th' set-up for a farce, n' it would be if everyone wasn't so serious n' aware of th' future about t' crash down on 'em like a watermelon on an anthill...