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SYNOPSIS

Olivia and Beatrice Grant are competitive sisters, and their younger brother Andrew often finds himself in the middle of the war between them. Their grandmother, Jane, is a powerful, successful matriarch, and what she says goes in the Grant family. The sisters discover that their Grandmother has an heirloom engagement ring, and Jane tells them that it will go to the first grandchild to get engaged. They dismiss Andrew as a candidate because he’s “still in his slutty phase,” (even though he just brought his new boyfriend Kyle to meet the family), while both of the sisters are in serious relationships – Olivia with Roger, a tweedy professorial type, and Stephen, a laidback musician. Their beloved grandmother’s engagement ring?! Inevitably, the sisters can’t help but see this as a race. They both start to have marriage on their minds, and test the waters with their boyfriends. Beatrice, who has never been the kind of girl who dreamt about her wedding day, is surprised to find herself sucked right into a world of wedding marketing aimed right at modern, hip, tattooed women like herself. The sisters are dying to see the ring, and unexpectedly, their grandmother decides to show it to them and their brother. The ring is hideous, but of course the sisters are too scared to tell their grandmother the truth. They tell her that they love it. However, they quickly realize that if they tell each other the truth, then the other sister won’t want the ring either. What would be the harm in letting the other sister get engaged first? Then she can have the ring, and be happy, and all will be well, and Grandma won’t ever have to know she didn’t like it. Independently of each other, they decide to back off, hoping the other sister will get engaged first. And just to make sure, they’ll give the other sister’s boyfriend a nudge in the right direction, encouraging them to propose. After an intense double date, where Beatrice and Olivia each try to sell the other sister as an absolutely amazing catch, Roger does propose to Olivia. Olivia gets caught up in her wedding planning, and Beatrice quickly finds out she doesn’t like being on the sidelines. The sisters’ lies and misbehavior escalate, and by the end lead to the loss of the ring, break-ups in both of their relationships, and a crisis point with their grandmother. However, Jane realizes her own role in this war, and encourages the sisters to forgive each other. Andrew rescues the ring from a pawn shop and proposes to Kyle, and the play ends with their wedding, as well as a reconciliation between Beatrice and Stephen. The show is a loving send-up of the modern wedding industry. We love weddings, but why do they so often make us crazy? Why do successful, smart, feminist, independent women find themselves sucked into the wedding industrial complex (and find themselves very conflicted about it)? Why is it so hard to tell the truth to the people that love you the most? Ultimately, Grandma’s Ring is a play about family, love and forgiveness, with a wicked sense of humor and a big heart.

NOTES

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