Andre’s wife has died. His daughters want to sell their father’s home and put him in a nursing home.
At least I think his wife is the dead one.
At times they’re both on stage and everyone is interacting with each other and at others one parent is being ignored.
This happens all at once and at unexpected times. It does take a while to get used to the style and it can be distracting. Ultimately I think Andre is the surviving spouse. As he states in the play, he wouldn’t be able to live without his wife and it’s possible that he sees her, but the daughters interact with her as well, so it’s up for interpretation.
This play is written by French playwright Florian Zeller. I’ve never seen or read any of his other works so I’m not sure if this is his style. Either way, I wasn’t exactly a fan and I wish the story had been written differently. This piece has plenty of good material and I believe the overall message is an effective one, but trying to figure out what’s going on takes away from that.
However the performances by Jonathan Pryce as Andre and Eileen Atkins as his wife Madeline are phenomenal. They balance each other perfectly. They work off of each other well. They are truly believable as a couple married for decades. They fight playfully with each other but the underlying emotion of everything they do is love.
The ending is absolutely beautiful. The story may be confusing, but watching these actors at work more than makes up for it.
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