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This is the poignant story of Carrie Watts, an aging widow living with her son, Ludie and his wife, Jessie Mae, in a three-room flat in Houston. Fearing that her presence may be an imposition on others, and chafing under the rigid and selfish supervision of her daughter-in-law, Carrie imagines that if she can get away and return to her old home in the town of Bountiful, she is sure to regain her strength, dignity and peace of mind. So, she attempts to run away and when she reaches a bus station on the last part of her short journey, she falls into the hands of a sheriff whom Ludie and Jessie Mae have put on her trail. The sheriff allows her to complete the final stage of her journey and she makes a lonely pilgrimage to the scene of her beloved home. Only too soon she learns that the friends of her youth have all died or scattered, and her home is no longer the one she remembers, but a crumbling wreck. But, she has the supreme satisfaction of plunging her hands into the life-giving earth and this leaves her with a sense of strength and dignity that gives her the courage to survive. When Ludie and Jessie Mae arrive to take her back to Houston, she consents to return quietly, secure in the knowledge that the remainder of her life will be enriched as a result of her last contact with Bountiful. This is one of the rare theatre experiences, one that will leave an indelible memory on the audience as they are completely captured and held as the story unfolds, taking away with them the heartfelt beauty each of us holds in our memories. |
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