'Eleemosynary' is filled with charity

'Eleemosynary' is filled with charity

There is little more difficult in life to interpret than a mother-daughter relationship. It is an unwritten history from a war in which there is no victor to claim the rights of telling the tale. Playwright Lee Blessing portrays the intricacies of these relationships so well it's hard to fathom that he's never been in one himself. Perhaps, though, it takes an observer to capture the authenticity of all parties fairly.

As challenging as Williamston Theatre's "Eleemosynary" is to pronounce or spell, those tasks are child's play compared to the difficulty and depth of the relationships between Dorothea, Artemis and Echo. They are a trio of strong-willed women whose need for independence means they spend much of their lives regretting the harm they've done to each other.

Not that these are cruel women. In the hands of Julia Glander (Dorothea), Rebecca Covey (Artie/Artemis) and Michelle Meredith (Echo), these three women are so sympathetic it hurts to watch them as they scar each other in an attempt to survive with their own person intact. There is resentment and misunderstanding, but there is also love and determination.

What is it that causes them to do such harm to each other? For a mother to smother her daughter who in turn abandons her daughter? For a daughter to shove her mother away and look with shame upon her eccentricity, while the daughter of the next generation blackmails her elders to force them back together? Eleemosynary. Charity. The giving of alms. Each of them, by trying so desperately to provide what they think the other needs, fails to see the real need.

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REVIEW

Eleemosynary

Williamston Theatre, 122 S. Putnam Rd., Williamston. Thursday-Sunday through June 1 2. $18-$24. 517-655-7469.

www.williamstontheatre.org

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Three generations of extraordinary women: Rebecca Covey, Julia Glander and Michelle Meredith in "Eleemosynary" at the Williamston Theatre. Photo: Chris Purchis

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