Come Slowly Eden

The play opens shortly after her death. Her sister Lavinia has discovered her poems in a bureau drawer: small packets of paper tied neatly together with ordinary sewing thread

With the help of Mr Higginson, a literary critic of the time who had earlier befriended Emily, the poems and letters she left behind are used to reveal this contradictory woman whose life on the surface appeared to be one of puritanical denial

Yet her writing revealed a human being hungry for love and personal fulfillment. The play is a search. We weigh clues in her poems and letters, and in the memories of Lavinia and brother Austin, as we reconstruct Emily's life

We see her as a carefree girl at home and as a young lady in growing conflict with her father; we witness her meeting with the minister who was to have such a crucial influence upon her

We follow the torment of her love for this man who was unattainable and watch her slow withdrawal from the world. It becomes clear that Emily was a creature before her time, subject to her day's social conventions but rebelling against them

And cherishing an impossible romance but refusing to settle for less; and, more importantly, pouring her joy and anguish into her poetry. That poetry is embedded in the narrative as jewels within a crown

The play is an unsolved mystery, and at the same time a portrait, tantalizing and unique, of a woman who lived by her own rules and left her wisdom to puzzle and delight posterity

Subtitled "a portrait of Emily Dickinson," this vital and affecting dramatization of the life and works of the memorable New England poetess featured Kim Stanley in its production on New York's ANTA Matinee Series

"It is a touching warm delineation of the moving career of poetess Emily Dickinson. Beautifully written, directed and played " ~ Variety