More Fine Girls

by Jennifer Brewin, Leah Cherniak, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Alisa Palmer and Martha Ross
directed by Alisa Palmer

A co-production with Theatre Columbus (Toronto, ON)

Jayne, Jojo and Jelly get together ten years after the party that drove them apart. This time, the sisters go into the basement. They convene for a family crisis, and share an overwhelming need to be together again. It is an intimate and comic look at sisters and the surprising truths of middle age.

a play in one act. There will be no intermission.

Notes

Play Guide

You know when you have that vague feeling like something is coming for you but you don't know what?
Sisters Jojo and Jayne Fine are at the cemetery. They are visiting their parents' graves. Jojo is flush with grief, but Jayne seems calm and detached. It has, after all, been ten years. As they talk, Jojo reveals another reason for her distress: she is worried about their youngest sister Jelly.

Okay, Jayne, here's the thing. About ten days ago, Jelly phoned me and she hung up. . . . I heard breathing on the other end. She was breathing into the phone. Something's up. A sister knows this kind of thing.

Reveal Jelly and the image of a huge, pregnant belly. Jelly's hard at work on her latest art installation as she waits for her sisters to arrive for lunch. Once they get there, the old sisterly dynamic takes over. Jojo and Jayne are dying to know why Jelly's invited them to lunch - days before Jelly's art opening, and her daughter Jesse's birthday party - but Jelly can hardly get a word in edgewise! Finally, she describes a recent trip to the doctor which ends with a seemingly innocent question:

JOJO: And did young. . . female Dr Chang find something? JELLY: Well. She wanted to know if there was anything in my medical history that might not be on the chart. JOJO: Like what, Jelly? JELLY: Um. I don't know. Do you know of anything?

Neither Jojo nor Jayne know of anything unusual in the family history. Jelly assuages their fears about her health, but doesn't tell them much more about what happened at the doctor:

She told me that I'm fine. And to come back if the tiredness doesn't wear off and to ask you what I asked you. And the funny thing is, afterwards it suddenly made sense to me what I was doing, what I've always been doing and I thought well, I should do that.And I should state it in the artist's statement, you know?

Nevertheless, Jojo remains convinced that her baby sister is in trouble. By the end of the conversation where Jelly describes how she's turning the house into an art project and that it's going to "lift off", Jayne is convinced too. That's why they decide to snoop - it's how good sisters show their love - but neither one is prepared for what they are about to find.

In the Mainspace

February 22–April 3
Opens Wednesday, March 2, 2011

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supported by: JMCF

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