Arden Theatre Company Presents Ladysitting through March 3
PHILADELPHIA -- Ladysitting is making its world premiere at the Arden Theatre Company.
It is based on Lorene Cary's 2019 memoir about caring for her dying Nana.
Zuhairah McGill is directing the production.
She says the show portrays "the stress and the joy" that comes along with caretaking.
"She came to us on hospice expecting to live between six weeks and six months. She lived with us for a little over a year and a half," says Playwright Lorene Cary of her Nana.
Melanye Finister plays Lorene Cary in the show.
"Lorene always felt very loved and affirmed by her grandmother," says Finister. "But it is a more complicated relationship."
Tony Award-winner Trezana Beverley plays Nana.
"We're really seeing this woman at the end of her life," says Beverley. "She wants to die on her own terms."
"Nana is a huge personality, willful, strong," says Finister.
And Cary is carrying a lot.
"It's very hard to go out in the morning and talk about what really happens," says Cary.
Finister says that while Lorene is taking care of her Nana, she's also taking care of her own family and navigating her career. She says amid all of that, Nana still wants to have control over things.
"The play is full of pathos and also humor," says Beverley.
Lorene's daughter and husband are portrayed in the production and death plays a role.
"And she staves off death for a very, very long time," says Beverley. "It's a story about her strength, her inner will, to live as long as she needs to live to finish off what she needs to do."
"But this play is so much about coming together as a family, and being together, and about legacy," says Finister.
McGill says the show also touches on the themes of love and memories.
"There is joy in life together, even when it's really hard," says Cary.
Ladysitting runs through March 3 at the Arden Theatre Company.
40 N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
