In 1971, she received a Master of Education degree in guidance and counseling from Howard University. Gray.Ĭropp received a bachelor's degree in government from Howard University in 1969. She was succeeded as Council Chairman by Vincent C. This loss came in spite of the fact that Cropp had been endorsed by outgoing mayor Anthony A. On September 12, 2006, she lost the Democratic Primary for Mayor (57% to 31%) to Adrian Fenty. She was a Democratic member of the Council of the District of Columbia, where she was the first woman to serve as the elected Council Chairman. Grand Horizons adroitly raises the question but avoids a pat answer, instead offering up a deeply funny and poignant account of late-life crisis with honesty, humour, and hope.Linda Washington Cropp (born Octo) is an American politician from Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. Still, the issue isn’t the past, but the future: is there any chance of cantankerous, stoic Bill and quiet but restless Nancy walking into the sunset together? That would require an emotional candour heretofore absent from their marriage. Each has some apprehension of the other’s secrets, but breaking the news to their children is like dropping a bomb. As funny as Grand Horizons is, there’s a seriousness at its core that deals with both the importance of communication in relationships, and the seemingly paradoxical impossibility of complete honesty.īill is having an affair, while Nancy admits to still carrying a torch for her first love. There’s no wasted space, and certainly no surplus lines the whole thing is as tight as a drum, humming with energy and ambition even as it offers up some devastating one-liners.Īnd some devastating revelations, too. The cast, headed by veterans Bell and Cropper, is in top notch form, delivering Wohl’s sharp, layered dialogue with pinpoint comic timing that left the audience roaring. Her psychology catchphrases are more important to her than actually seeing who Nancy is and what she is and listening to what Nancy is trying to say.īrought to life for Sydney Theatre Company by resident director Jessica Arthur, American playwright Bess Wohl’s sharp dramedy is sparky fun. Workaholic lawyer Ben aims for pragmatism, but is simply not coping with his own pressures, not the least of which is the impending birth of his first child with wife Jess.įor her part Jess, a therapist, champions Nancy’s self-determination even as she continually speaks over her. Brian, a gay theatre teacher with a tendency to catastrophise, responds with the kind of heightened drama common to the productions he coaches his students through. Of course, the received wisdom is that it’s the kids who suffer in any marriage breakdown, but in this case sons Brian (Guy Simon, The Harp in the South) and Ben (Johnny Nasser, Lady Tabouli) are grown adults who simply can’t comprehend that their parents might have actual adult problems and needs. What do you do when the life you’ve led no longer satisfies, but you’re staring down the barrel of at least another decade? Is it too late to jump ship? While we’re not really set up to deal with the needs of the elderly but spry as a culture – and even a cursory examination of the aged care industry will leave you with no illusions regarding that fact – it’s something we are increasingly called on to address on the personal level. Questions like what we want out of life, who we love, and even who we really are as people. It’s a difficult truth to grapple with, but on the whole we humans are living much longer than we used to, and that means dealing with certain issues way later in life than our forebears could ever reasonably expect to reach. “I think I would like a divorce,” she says brightly. That changes after yet another silent, near-ritualistic dinner together in their nicely appointed but nigh-on anonymous retirement flat (the play’s title is the name of their “independent living” community). Read on for our review of the 2021 season.Īfter half a century of marriage, Bill (John Bell of Bell Shakespeare fame) and Nancy (sometime Lady Macbeth Linda Cropper) have very little new to say to each other. Sydney Theatre Company's smash-hit look at romance and the intergenerational divide returns for an encore season in 2022.
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