Grace and Glorie warms hearts at Rosebud Theatre
By Laureen F. Guenther Times Contributor
Photo Courtesy of Morris Ertman
Grace and Glorie, a play by Tom Ziegler, opened at Rosebud Theatre on April 1. It’s directed by David Snider and plays in Rosebud’s Opera House until May 28.
Grace, played by Norma Roth, is a 90-year-old woman who has cancer. She has left the hospital so she can die in her own home, on her own terms. Glorie is Grace’s nickname for Gloria, a highly-educated, well-intentioned yet uninformed hospice volunteer who’s come to care for her. Gloria is played by Sarah Robinson, a fourth-year student at Rosebud School of the Arts (RSA).
The audience soon learns that Grace has suffered many losses in her 90 years, losses that run deeper than the orchard that a developer is demolishing around her, and much heavier than most of us think we could bear.
The audience learns that Gloria’s losses are not so visible, but they are crippling her too.
Gloria has come to give Grace physical care, but Gloria needs care for her soul. And in a beautiful role reversal, it is frail, 90-year-old Grace who cares for her.
Roth and Robinson disappear into these characters. Roth’s awkward gait, a Blue Ridge Mountain accent and facial expressions convinced me she really is a 90-year-old mountain woman who urgently needs to “make water.” I believed that Robinson truly is a bitter, highly-strung, do-gooding lawyer from New York.
Though we are far from the Blue Ridge Mountains, Grace and Glorie are people we know. After two years of pandemic and polarization, we need their story more than ever.
We’ve learned that people who are elderly need more than professional caregiving. And here is Grace, reminding us that elderly people still have a lot to give back.
Grace and Glorie also help us reconsider how we handle disagreement. Though they’re tempted to walk away – and it seems, for a while, that they will – Grace and Glorie keep coming back. They encourage us to keep coming back to our own relationships and to fight harder for each other than for our need to be right.
Grace and Glorie plays on every Wednesday to Saturday in April, and each Wednesday to Sunday in May, until May 28. Tickets may be purchased with or without a gourmet meal, served in the Mercantile before the show. Contact Rosebud Theatre at 1-800-267-7553 or rosebudtheatre.com for more information or tickets.