Three Tall Women

Act One

The play opens one afternoon in the grand bedroom of a wealthy, old woman. Accompanying the elderly lady, identified simply as A, are two other women. B, the carer, is middle aged, while C is in her twenties. From the first instance, A asserts herself as a cantankerous force that both B and C must assuage. B finds this easier than C, who rises to the bait and involves herself in frustrating argument about age. Suddenly, A declares, “I want to go.” B helps A to the bathroom then admits to C that A wets her bed every morning, a ritual which B observes as “a kind of greeting to the day.” The loss of dignity horrifies C but B explains her view of mortality--everyone is “dying from the minute they’re alive”. A soon returns wondering “Will he come today?”, and it becomes clear she is talking about her son. However, her absent-mindedness about her son and his visits swiftly builds as she then remarks that, actually, he never comes to see her. A has a difficult relationship with