READING-Garden of Memories by Jessica Bashline

Directed by Sydnie Grosberg Ronga

Homes have memory- and the past and present mingle in them.

Garden of Memories opens on Lisa and Brian, middle aged siblings organizing their mother’s funeral.  They are waiting for their youngest sister Charlotte to arrive from LA, she is characteristically late. Charlotte arrives, surprisingly 8 months pregnant and tightlipped about the father, which does nothing to ease the already high level of tension between uptight Lisa and people pleaser Brian.  It seems their mother has changed her end-of-life plans without letting anyone know—and Brian is desperately trying to understand why. Meanwhile, in the same house, some 30 years earlier- Shirley and Ron (the children’s parents) struggle to figure out how to move forward once Ron finds out Shirley’s deepest secrets. 1982 and 2018 mix and mingle on the same stage, with the young parents moving through their adult aged children, neither timeline aware of the other- but both making decisions that were predestined for them and that will affect those who come after.