Bones of Home

Play #72 - Bones of Home by Charlene A. Donaghy

This is an interesting play with an awful lot of tough ideas in a very small space. Miriam is an Irish woman in her 70s who finds Dillon, an African-American teenager, attempting to break into her house. It turns out that he thought the place was abandoned and he was just looking for somewhere to hide. He is running away from his aunt's house before she can take him back to Boston. He has been living with his aunt and uncle in Boston since his parents died in New Orleans in a hurricane - the suggestion, of course, is Katrina, or something like it. His aunt resented his mother for being the illegitimate child of their father and his lover, so she didn't even claim his parents' bodies. He is determined to get back to New Orleans where he can find his parents' graves, or at least be close enough to them to feel their memory. Miriam, whose partner Jessie died four months ago, has been lonely too, to the point of considering suicide. Dillon tells her that his parents had no choice whether or not to die, and that she would be selfish to choose death. After establishing their unlikely connection, Miriam goes inside to get the key to her old truck and some money - both of which she gives to Dillon to aid in his travels. He drives off, and Miriam is left on the porch of her run-down house, listening to the ball game and pondering her pills and wine.

There is some real affection and heart in this play, but I think it might be trying to accomplish a lot more than it can realistically fit in such a small space. Angsty teenager, runaway, hurricane Katrina, suicide, old lady with a dead female partner... it just feels a little dense