- A. Where is the play?
- Hazlehurst, Mississippi USA
- The scenes take place in the home of the Magrath sisters. (Actually, it’s their grandfather’s house, but it is cared for and inhabited primarily by Lenny Magrath.)
- The house is old, the exact age and condition are not described.
- B. When is the play?
- The play takes place in the summer sometime during the late 19 ’70s to the early 1980s.
- The play takes place soon after the birthday of Lenny Magrath, which has a special significance to the characters.
- C. Who is in the play?
- The 3 Magrath sisters, Lenny, Babe, and Meggy are the main cluster of characters. The other three characters are Chick, a Magrath cousin, Barnette, Babe’s attorney, and Doc Porter, an old friend of Meg and Lenny. A character that is often talked about is Granddaddy, yet he is never seen.
- The Magrath sisters complete the different portions that fulfill society’s image of an ordinary woman. Each of these women plays the roles that a normal woman plays such as wife, mother, daughter, and sister. Barnette is a lawyer who is defending Babe, whom he is infatuated with. Doc Porter is a father of two and a husband who once wanted to be a doctor, who now apparently owns a small ranch, he also spent time as a house painter. A granddaddy is an old man who is in the hospital.
- It seems that all the characters have mutual respect for each other, aside from Chick who has strong opinions concerning Meg. As I have mentioned the character of Barnette is infatuated with Babe. Babe and Lenny both feel that Meg has always been treated better by their Grandmother and Grandfather.
- Lenny has a poor self-image.
- Characters all live in a democratic nation.
- The characters pay no attention to religion, it is rarely mentioned in the play. 6. The prevailing attitudes of the characters are that family is important, sex is not considered a bad thing. They seem to consider anything that can be rationally justified as ethical. They seem to live within these attitudes quite peacefully.
- D. What happened before the play began?
- Long before the play began the Magrath sisters’ mother apparently hung herself along with her cat.
- After the mother’s death, the grandparents took custody of the girls.
- The grandmother died.
- The Magrath sisters were taken care of by the grandfather solely after that.
- Meg abandoned Doc Porter in Biloxi during a hurricane.
- Babe Married Botrelle.
- Lenny met her man from Memphis.
- Babe shot Botrelle.
- Lenny wired Meg telling her to come home.
