Casualty of War

The story of a mother’s sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking trip to Normandy’s D-Day beaches with her unwilling teenage son, written and performed by Sharon Lesser with direction by Austin Tooley. Sharon’s got a perfect itinerary planned: A mother-son tour of Normandy and Omaha Beach, with some road-tripping, great French food and a visit to Paris. What she gets is a journey with a sullen, heart-broken adolescent whose own emotional D-Day turns him into a hostile adversary pining for home. There’s a war brewing and it’s not between the Germans and the Allies. While trying to make the best of things by attempting to outmaneuver her son’s everchanging moods (i.e., being a mom), she’s surprised by how the WW2 history they encounter invokes memories of antisemitism and the impact the Holocaust had on her family. Casualty of War explores the timeless themes of motherhood, intergenerational trauma, and identity. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll crave rosé.