Painting Churches

A Comedic Family Drama by Tina Howe and directed by Joseph Wright

Courtesy of Samuel French

Run Dates: Mar 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16

On the verge of celebrity, Mags Church returns to the blue-blooded home of her childhood, and a collision of changes. Determined to capture the long-put-off portrait of her eccentric parents before they move from the house and its memories, Mags is forced to confront her complicated feelings for her hat-sporting, jabbering mother, and her absent-minded, literary father, who is now tumbling into senility. Both talent and fortitude triumph, to permit at last an aesthetically and emotionally honest rendering: of the two unusual people who raised her, and of the artist herself.

“Beautifully written. . . . Tina Howe has dramatized an illuminating connection between life an art. A theatrical family portrait that has the shimmer and depth of Renoir portraits.” – The New York Times

“A radiant, loving and zestfully humorous play . . . distinctly Chekhovian. Howe captures the same edgy surface of false hilarity, the same unutterable sadness beneath it, and the indomitable valor beneath both.” – Time

Rating: All Audiences, however, theme may be less accessible for younger children