Boulder, CO 80306
VIVA THEATRE under the auspices of The Society or Creative Aging presents
"THE OUTGOING TIDE"--a straight-talking, unpretentious, and unexpectedly humorous story of one man's struggles to stay in control of the end of his life as he contends with Alzheimer’s. Gunner (Steve Grad), a hard-bitten man who ran a trucking company, is planning his exit and rejecting years of humiliating deterioration in a “home”. “Quality of life. Kiss my ass”.
Peg (Abigail Wright) has lived with Gunner for 50 years. She’s a good Catholic girl whose caretaking of her family is sorely tested. Still she says, “It’s what I do.” She wants son Jack (Bunk Hess) to help her convince Gunner to move to a continuous care facility.
Jack, caught in the middle of his parents’ struggle, has his own problems – midway through a divorce, dealing with a difficult teen-age son, plus old grudges about a father who teased and bullied him as a child and a mother who used to scare him with her exaggerated caution: “I know a boy who sat too close to the television and his eyeballs melted…”
We get to know them and see the situation from all three points of view.
“Rage, rage against the dying of the light,” Dylan Thomas wrote as he contemplated old age and death. Gunner, a character in “The Outgoing Tide,” is somewhat less poetic, yelling at his wife when she brings up the idea that they move into a rest home together: “You got a better chance of seeing Christ direct traffic with a cigar in his mouth.” … NY Times
“…this drama brings sensitive observation and minor-key humor to painful situations that many of us will recognize from our own families” ~ NY Times
“The Outgoing Tide …has affection and respect for its characters, and pulls you into its story. The characters are well-drawn, the dialogue is pungent…How Gunner determines to take control of his own fate, make peace with Jack, and win over Peg to his end-of-life plan makes up the gist of the story.” ~ Backstage
The Outgoing Tide by Bruce Graham, directed by James Carver, will play at the Nomad Theatre, 7:30 pm September 23rd, 24th, 30th, Oct 1st,and 2:30 pm Sept 25th .
Tickets may be purchased at the door or at www.s4creativeaging.org $15 adults, $12 seniors and students. Early bird special and group discount available online.
