The Unearthing
by Lindsay Joy
Directed by Lauren Miller*
Music by Joey Contreras
Featuring: Dominic Comperatore, Sean Dougherty, Kate Middleton, and Lynn Wright*
The Unearthing digs into the dysfunctional dynamics between Fiona and Olivia, two 30-something sisters who are faced with the prospect of clearing out their childhood home after their pack-rat mother’s death. What they discover underneath all the refuse and junk in this dark yet hilarious comedy throws them into turmoil, but what they can’t seem to find is the one thing they are looking for: their mother’s will.
From the Playwright:
I started writing this piece for one simple reason: I got freaked out. A few years ago, I agreed to take care of my mother following a pretty major surgery. In passing, she remarked, “Maybe you can help me clean up a bit”. I had no idea what I was in store for. Homes hold years and years of memories and keepsakes…in my mother’s case it held 30 years of junk. It became clear to me that the stuff I deemed junk was all so very important to her. About 2 dumpsters and roughly a million squabbles later, my mother’s home was clean -or- cleaner. But- the entire experience left me thinking, “Why do things become so important to us?”
My mother’s house was not the house of a hoarder. But to me- it seemed as though could have escalated to that point. I became furiously fascinated by this affliction and what it does to the people around it. Randy O. Frost’s “Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things” became a kind of bible for me. One of the hoarders that Frost interviews said something that turned this play on its head for me: “If you want to give a thing power, make it a secret.”
We all carry secrets, and so many of our secrets become intertwined with objects. What if you were forced to dig out those secrets one object at a time?
About the Playwright:
LINDSAY JOY (Playwright) is a Brooklyn based playwright and a proud member of the LABrats. She frequently works with Amios Theater company for their monthly short play bonanza Shotz at Theatre Under St. Marks. Her short pieces have been seen all over the country- from the Bowery Poetry Club to the Boston Playwright’s Theater. Her full length play Severance was produced by the Barracudas in the spring of 2010. Her collaborative piece The Apartment: a Play with Four Sides was featured in the 2011 NY International Fringe Festival. In 2001, Lindsay won the award for best short play at the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival for her piece Life, Love and a 7-11. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 2002 and is currently studying with Padraic Lillis of the LAByrinth Theatre Company.
