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Eleemosynary | Introduction

Lee Blessing often focuses on family dynamics in his plays. Eleemosynary, one of his most acclaimed works, is no exception. The play was first performed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1985 and published by the Dramatists Play Service in 1987; it forms part of the collection Four Plays, published by Heinemann in 1991. Eleemosynary won the prestigious Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award in 1997 for its penetrating study of the interactions among three members of the Wesbrook family. In his examination of their relationships with one another, Blessing illustrates the tensions that can stress a family to its breaking point.

Eleemosynary focuses on the lives of three Wesbrook women: seventy-five-year-old Dorothea; her middle-aged daughter, Artie; and Artie's sixteen-year-old daughter, Echo. Dorothea, an admitted New Age eccentric, has complicated the lives of the two other Wesbrook women by imposing her thwarted dreams on them, which has alienated Artie not only from Dorothea but from Echo as well. As the play begins, Echo is caring for Dorothea, who has just had a stroke. During the course of the play, Echo tries to bring the three women together. Blessing presents fragmented vignettes of the lives of the three women as they struggle to define themselves both as individuals and as part of a family unit. In this poignant and mature study of familial relationships, Blessing highlights the human need for connection and forgiveness.

Eleemosynary Summary

Scenes 1 and 2

In the first scene of Eleemosynary, sixteen-year-old Echo spells the word "eleemosynary," explaining that it is her favorite word and that she once won a spelling bee by spelling it correctly. She defines it as "of or pertaining to alms; charitable." She introduces her seventy-five-year-old grandmother, Dorothea, to the audience and explains that Dorothea has suffered a stroke. Echo says that her grandmother cannot speak, but she claims that she can hear the elderly woman, as can the audience.

The first of several flashbacks begins, as Artie, Echo's mother, appears, wearing a pair of homemade wings and looking miserable. Echo explains that her grandmother believed that one could fly with the proper wings and once filmed her mother's failed attempt to do so. Dorothea says that she would like to be flying herself. During the flashback, Echo continues to speak to the audience, explaining her love of words.

As the scene shifts, Dorothea and Artie argue about the ability to fly. Echo is studying for the spelling bee, prompted by her mother, who drills her over the phone. The scene moves back to the flight film, as Echo explains that the Wesbrook women have a desire to be "extraordinary." She discusses her own outstanding scholarly aptitude, which was encouraged by her grandmother, who imparted to her a love of words. A flashback shows, however, that after she had won the spelling bee, she panicked and wondered, "What'll I do next year?" The film ends with Dorothea, embarrassed, admitting that her daughter has failed to fly, which prompts Artie's insistence that her mother is "nuts." Echo closes the scene by saying that she feels both her mother and her grandmother within her.

In scene 2, Artie admits that she has trouble touching people, including her daughter, which worries her. She notes that Dorothea, who raised Echo, was a better mother. In flashbacks, Dorothea teaches Echo the letters of the alphabet. Artie says that she never forgets anything, suggesting that there are some things she would like to forget. As Artie recalls her life, Dorothea keeps interrupting. Artie notes the irony in the fact that she became pregnant when she was eighteen: while she learned all kinds of other information, no one ever taught her about sex.

Artie and her mother argued about her future, Artie asserting that she was going to be a mother and Dorothy insisting that she get an abortion so that she could go to college and be more than "just something a child needs." Artie finally agreed to the abortion and then ran... ยป Complete Eleemosynary Summary