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Come Slowly, Eden
Author(s):
Norman Rosten
is of Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), that strange New England lady who hid from the world and wrote her passionate, glorious poetry in secret. The play opens shortly after her death. Her sister Lavinia has discovered her poems in a bureau drawer: small packets of paper tied neatly together with ordinary sewing thread. With the help of Mr. Higginson, a literary critic of the time who had earlier befriended Emily, the poems and letters she left behind are used to reveal this contradictory woman whose life on the surface appeared to be one of puritanical denial, yet whose writing showed a human being hungry for love and personal fulfillment. The play is a search. We weigh clues in her poems and letters, and in the memories of Lavinia and brother Austin, as we reconstruct Emily's life. We see her as a carefree girl at home, and as a young lady in growing conflict with her father; we witness her meeting with the minister who was to have such a crucial influence upon her. We follow the torment of her love for this man who was unattainable and watch her slow withdrawal from the world. It becomes clear that Emily was a creature before her time, subject to her day's social conventions but rebelling against them; cherishing an impossible romance but refusing to settle for less; and, more important, pouring her joy and anguish into her poetry. That poetry is embedded in the narrative as jewels within a crown. The play is an unsolved mystery, and at the same time a portrait--tantalizing and unique--of a woman who lived by her own rules, and left her wisdom to puzzle and delight posterity.
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| Genre(s): | Drama
| | Time Period(s): | Not Available | | Play Type: | Play | | Runtime: | Not Available | | Acts: | Not Available | | Set Complexity: | Not Available | | Set Information: | Not Available | | Year First Published: | Not Available | | Total Characters: | 7 | | Male Characters: | 5 | | Female Characters: | 2 | | Androgynous Characters: | Not Available | | Minimum Cast: | Not Available | | Maximum Cast: | Not Available | | Cost: | FEE: $40 per performance
Royalty/cost information prone to change.
Please check with the publisher for the most accurate information. | | Publisher: | Dramatists Play Service
Click on the publisher's name above for additional information, including updated prices. | | ISBN: | Not Available |
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