Birth and After Birth

Combining biting social comedy with a wild streak of the absurd, Tina Howe’s (Painting Churches, Pride’s Crossing, Coastal Disturbances) Birth and After Birth draws a fractured portrait of a contemporary family trying to hold it all together. Bill and Sandy Apple absolutely insist on upholding a perfect image of blissful family life with their rambunctious four-year-old, Nicky. Things soon go haywire, however, when Nicky’s antic personality goes out of control on his birthday and the Apples’ best friends, the childless Freeds, call into question the Apple’s deeply held assumptions about child-rearing and fertility.

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