deirdre duffy

A 3-act play: tells the story of Andrew Blossom, a man struggling with profound grief in the aftermath of 9/11.  A former Puget Sound Naval Shipyard engineer, Andrew became a defense contractor following the loss of his son, Ben, who died in the collapse of WTC2.  Andrew is also a widower: his wife Lydia died of breast cancer a few years after 9/11.  Andrew's struggles with grief are compounded by the fact that his twin sister’s daughter (and Andrew’s only niece) Leah, was born on the 11th of September, 1994: Leah turned 7 the morning of 9/11.  The story takes place on September 10, 2015--the eve of Leah's 21st birthday, when she and her parents come to Andrew's Washington, D.C. penthouse to celebrate.  Leah--who has been offered a job in Andrew's defense manufacturing business now that she has graduated college--wants her uncle to help her fund a permaculture school.  At dinner, Leah shares her passionate vision with Andrew: in response, she is told in no uncertain terms that Andrew will not help her fund her dream.  Following this, Leah confronts her uncle and her parents with their failure to read the environmental writing on the wall; she also confronts her uncle's failure to honor his dead son through support of a life-giving, rather than a life-destroying, industry. The party ends badly, and later that evening, Andrew is visited by a sequence of ghosts, each seeking to help him recognize the significance of Leah’s request, the magnitude of the emotional challenge he’s facing in relation to it, and why changing his position matters, not only for him, but for generations to come.