About This Show
The Secret Ruths of Island House is a play based on interviews conducted with seven real women named Ruth who live in a retirement home. Their lives have been phenomenal and tumultuous; they have lived through the Depression, World War II, generations of children, and lifelong loves. Now, they are living out the final chapter of their lives in a quiet, out-of-the-way place in which not much happens, and the outside world rarely intrudes.
The memories are piled so thickly between the walls of that place that visitors swim in them, and they take on a life of their own. The Secret Ruths of Island House incorporates theatre, mask, dance, and song to uncover a tiny piece of the experience of our most overlooked demographic, and the one with the most to share: our elders.
