Play about the importance of family gestures (2 characters)

This is a play for 2 characters. It shows us the transcendence and importance of family gestures.

Title: “Grandmother’s gift”

Author: Silvina Carrasco

2 Characters:

  1. Lucy: She is a young woman of about 21 years old. She has recently become the mother of a baby girl named Abby. Over the years and the arrival of Abby, her outlook on life has changed.
  2. Monica: She is Lucy’s mother.

SINGLE ACT

Characters involved in this act: Lucy and Monica.

Setting: The setting is pleasant and rather uncluttered; a couch, warm lighting and a very hand-knitted and stuffed teddy bear (it is old and already a bit misshapen).

Introduction: Lucy remembers her grandmother on the anniversary of her passing.

Lucy is sitting on her couch, pensive, with her bear in her hand.

(Monica creeps in)

-Monica: Hi daughter, how are you? Is Abby sleeping?

-Lucy: Yes, she fell asleep a while ago.

-Monica: I thought so, that’s why I tried not to make any noise.

-Lucy: Did you bring flowers to grandma?

-Monica: Yes, I just came from there. (Looks at the teddy bear her daughter is holding in her hand) Have you been thinking about her too?

-Lucy: Yes, it’s been seven years but I still can’t get used to her not being with us… and I miss her, there are so many things I would like to share with her today. (Short pause) I was remembering the day she gave me this bear.

-Monica: Yes, I remember; she spent days looking for the perfect color wool and fabric and days knitting and sewing. He wanted it to be a special gift for you.

-Lucy: I didn’t know, I do remember the day he gave it to me. It was my birthday, I was expecting a talking doll and instead this handmade teddy bear appeared… It pains me to admit it, but my disappointment was great.

-Monica: (Laughing) I almost had to force you to thank your grandmother for the gift and change your face.

-Lucy: I was really disappointed at that moment, but it’s amazing how when you grow up, the smallest gestures become the most important.

-Monica: You don’t have to feel bad, you were a six year old girl, it’s logical that you preferred something else.

-Yet your grandmother felt she wanted to show you her love in that way: by making you something herself and not buying you something extravagant.

-Lucy: If she had given me the doll, I would have played with it for a while and then thrown it in a corner or in the trash. But this bear has been with me all my life and is one of the most valuable things I have.

-Monica: Well, she finally achieved her goal: to give you a special gift.

-Lucy: She was a wonderful grandmother. I wish Abby could have met her and enjoyed her like I did.

-Monica: She will get to know her through you; when you tell her the memories you have of her: the things she cooked for you, the places she took you for walks, the games she played with you, the stories she told you….

-Lucy: Yes, that’s true. It’s that the people we love very much, never go away completely.

-Monica: No. They stay in the memories, in the things they taught us and even in those little gestures, which, as you say, become the most important thing.

-Lucy: Yes, my teddy bear for example, which for me represents everything that was good about my grandmother.

-Monica: And that surely one day will be Abby’s.

-Lucy: Yes, one day I will give it to her, along with all the other memories.

(Lucy and Monica hold hands with the teddy bear present).

THE END

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