Synopsis
Michele Lowe's radiant play explores the possibilities that open up in the lives of an array of women as they come into contact with a certain strand of pearls. While the pearls are stolen, bought, bestowed, unstrung and nearly lost, four actresses play 27 characters in this deeply moving drama that is as fresh as it is funny. On the eve of her granddaughter Amy's wedding, Beth asks to see the pearls she gave Amy's mother long ago. When Amy cannot produce them, Beth determines to find the pearls. She takes us back to the time when she received them and then gave them to her daughter, who passed them on to her dearest friend Ela who lost them one Sunday morning. Spanning 35 years, the pearls touch the lives of mothers and daughters, sisters and friends, even husbands and wives as they weave a deeply affecting story of love and loss.
Notes
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This play contains sexually explicit content.
Details
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Status
In stock
- Type of Show Full-length Play
- Product Code SK2000
- Cast Size 4
- Min. Royalty Rate $110/perf
- Cost $11.95
- Approx. Run Time 100 min
Categories
- Target Audience College and Adult
- Performing Group College Theatre | Community Theatre | Professional Theatre
- Genre Drama
- ISBN(13) 9781583422861
Customer Reviews
- "It would take four extraordinarily gifted actors to pull off Michelle's original concept (it is an actor's piece after all, and the true identity of the show is so tied into this quartet); but even expanding it to accommodate the 22 women who wanted to do the show, the acting challenge does not diminish in any way whatsoever.Pearls requires the kind of craft and experience that you don't usually find in university students or in the local acting community. Having said, that's exactly why I took it on. Great connected storytelling with unique characterizations in unexpected circumstances made for a challenging and welcome process."
- Review by Professor Ralph Small, Thorneloe at Laurentian University, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada
- "Michele Lowe was intentionally vague about the casting for the play. She believed that the characters could take on unique lives through the talents of the actresses involved. By focusing on the language and not the size, shape, color or age of the actresses, we are free to see ourselves and all the women we know. There is a fifth performer in String of PearlsÑthe pearls themselves. They are the best friend. The cherished confidant who knows what we need even when we don't, who is by our side without judgment, whose presence transforms and elevates us and whose love is felt even long after they are gone. The pearls travel around the world and across several decades, threading onto its strand the lives of very different women who are redeemed, made whole and ultimately, are perfectly matched, like a string of "high luster, spherical, ros pearls.""
- Review by Sherry Netherland, The Group Rep, North Hollywood, Calif.
Media Reviews
"String of Pearls is a funny and moving tale of a fated necklace that changes the lives of over two dozen characters. Their stories twist and turn through a myriad of emotional turmoil—love, loss, desire—as the necklace touches the lives of all who come into contact with it. The stories and characters, intricately threaded together, create a gently comic, wonderfully magical puzzle." -TheatreChannel.com"Highly satisfying hilarious blend of sex, satire, poignancy and absurdism." -The New York Times
Gallery
Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH
The Group Rep, North Hollywood, CA
