If I Forget and Other Plays
Description
In If I Forget, Michael Fischer reunites with his sisters to celebrate their father’s seventy-fifth birthday. Each deeply invested in their own version of family history, the siblings clash over everything from Michael’s controversial scholarly work to the pressures of caring for their ailing parent. As destructive secrets bubble to the surface, the three negotiate how much of the past they’re willing to sacrifice for a chance at a new beginning. This debut collection also includes The Unavoidable Disappearance of Tom Durnin and The Language of Trees.
Reviews
Steven Levenson’s passionate and provoking If I Forget is a family play and a political play . . . Irritable and animated, the Fischers come vibrantly alive in this playwright’s funny, bruising, searching voice.
- Alexis Soloski
Gripping . . . The problem with many family dramas is that the families are so often hateful. Levenson avoids that trap in If I Forget, writing about a tribe of middle-aged Jewish neurotics who snipe and squabble after the death of their mother—but who love one another . . . One secret after another is teased out.
- Marilyn Stasio