ISBN: 978-0-573-69756-2

Tina Howe

Comedy

3m, 4f

Interior

In Tina Howe’s comedy, Chasing Manet, a rebellious painter from a distinguished family in Boston and an ebullient Jewish woman with a huge adoring family form an unlikely bond. Inside the confining walls of Mount Airy Nursing Home, the two plot an escape to Paris aboard the QE2. But can they possibly pull it off amidst the chaos of their surroundings? The tension and comedy grow as they struggle to take wing for the last time.

“Chasing Manet has an inspirational message at its core concerning the potential that lives in us all, no matter what the barriers, to defy expectations and take action to attain our dreams.“ —NYTheatre.com

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Character Descriptions:
HENRY – A patient who cries for help
SAVIANA – A patient who makes strange noises
IRIS – A patient with Alzheimer’s disease
CATHERINE SARGENT – A prominent painter from Boston who’s legally blind and suffers from depression, among other ailments, 80s
CHARLES – Nurse and PT instructor, African American, a man with a past, 30s-40s
ESPERANZA – Catherine and Rennie’s Hispanic nurse, 30s
ROYAL LOWELL – Catherine’s son, a professor in the English Department at Columbia, 50s
RENNIE WALTZER – Catherine’s new roommate, a lively Jewish woman in the early stages of dementia, wheelchair bound due to crippling arthritis, 80s
RITA – Rennie’s daughter, 50s
GABE – Rita’s husband, African American, 40s-50s
MAURICE – Rennie’s brother, 70s
MARVIN – Rennie’s son, 50s
ANGELICA – Marvin’s Hispanic wife, 40s
SHERWOOD – A patient, the proverbial dirty old man
MARIE CLAIRE – The French arts and crafts instructor, 40s
STEWARD – From Trinidad, 30s
CAPTAIN of the QE2 – A charming Englishman, 60s