Holding On
Alice Underwood
Genre: Drama
Cast size: 5
Duration: 45-50 mins approx
Alice Underwood | Drama | One Act | 1m, 3f, 1jnr-f
Short synopsis
- Synopsis
- Characters
Henrietta, has spent her whole life believing, that at the age of thirteen she was the cause of her baby brother’s death. Based upon this huge sense of guilt, she has made erroneous decisions that have circumscribed her life both emotionally and professionally with devastating effect.
As an older woman she now wishes only to write and believes if, as Virginia Wolf prescribed, she had at long last ‘A Room of One’s Own’ this ambition could be fulfilled.
Initially it might seem odd that she has stumbled into the antenatal department but as her story unfolds it transpires that a baby is embedded in her memory. Once there she revisits her life, replaying scenes from it - those key moments when some things change, and others are resolved.
In the first scene of the play, we see Henrietta as a gentle book-loving child, and in the second scene, after the baby’s death, we meet her as a sulky adolescent, having been sent to a boarding school which she believes is her parents’ punishment for her being the cause of her brother’s death.
In a further scene, we meet her as a failed actress, recalling an audition with her lost love and his unwillingness to reignite the relationship following the termination of her pregnancy, without consulting him, the ‘father’.
Henrietta has a caustic tongue, which can cause amusement as well as pathos but only when she finally accepts the friendship and compassion of the care assistant does she, quite literally, face her fears and understand the cause and implications of witnessing a cot death.
Being admitted to hospital means Henrietta finally acquires a room of her own, yet the audience are left to ponder whether or not she has the ability to achieve inner peace.
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