I Have Come to Show You Death
Scenes on Lesbians and Dying by 19th Century, New England Women Writers
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Picking Fruit by Mary Cassatt

• 2015, Cauldron & Labrys Productions and Maine Women Writers Collection, University of New England, Portland, ME (reading).

I Have Come to Show You Death is collection of dramatic  adaptations of works by four 19th century New England writers, all of whom appear to have been in Boston Marriages and whose writings celebrate intimacy between women and negative appraisals of the effects of heterosexual marriage on women.

Three are adaptations of short stories dealing with the death of a lesbian life partner. The fourth adaptation is taken from a novel, and it explores the meaning of life for two young lesbians.

Two Friends by Mary Wilkins Freeman. The impending death of one woman drives her partner into desperate denial and the confession of an old betrayal.

Since I Died by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. A woman who has recently died attempts and fails to communicate with her lesbian life partner, who is unable to see her.

There and Here by Alice Brown. A woman receives a ghostly visitation from her former beloved companion, and together they revisit scenes from their childhood. At dawn she receives news that her friend has died overseas.

Scene from Deephaven by Sarah Orne Jewett. Two young women, ending their summer of independence in a Maine fishing village, share an intimate evening, musing on the mystery of life.

Click here to read Introduction.

Five women: Two young, three middle-aged.
Multiple sets.
60 minutes.

 

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