The Captivity of Pixie Shedman
THE STORY: Attempting a novel based on his late grandmother’s diary, Bertram Shedman, a struggling young writer, is bemused by her extravagant tales and high-flown poetry. Trying to sort out the truth of this remarkable and singular woman he conjures up the fleshly spirit of Pixie herself—as she steps into the action of the play and attempts to persuade this quizzical young man that the lurid events and twisted relationships put down in her family history are indeed the stuff of real life. Their confrontation brings forth other ghosts; his domineering great-grandfather, who whisked Pixie off to Washington after his election as a U.S. Senator; his hard-drinking physician grandfather, who stole Pixie away from his father but looked for solace in the arms of a local waitress; and his own unhappy father, who led a life ordained by others and died of cancer while still a young man. In the end these apparitions step back into the past once more, but their legacy is now one of truth and a guide to the present descendant in reconciling the tangled strands of his own life.
This ingeniously conceived memory play probes into the mind of a young writer who must exorcise the ghosts of his ancestors before he can get started on his own career.
“…Linney juggles his string of conflicts wittily and effectively…a director’s feast.” —Village Voice.
“He shoots plays off into horizons.” —New York Post.
“…reminiscent of the plays of Thornton Wilder, almost a cross between his Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth, walking the same kind of tightrope between naturalism and out-and-out fantasy.” —Bergen Record.
