Since You Left Us: A Story of Dogged Determination and Unconditional Love

Since You Left Us is a play about dogs, love and friendship – and other tragedies waiting to happen.

A broken-down family reunites on the occasion of the matriarch’s 70th birthday, but it’s hard for these walking wounded to maintain a celebratory mood. Fanny is a recovering alcoholic trying to mend her relationship with her mother, an abusive and spiteful woman who nonetheless is capable of showing love (if you can get past the insults, humiliating comments and embarrassing behavior). The show is often unsettling, though the players are not averse to engage in a little well-timed silliness to provide a bit of much-needed comic relief.

Fanny came by her addiction honestly; almost everyone else in the family suffers from the same disease. As the horror of Fanny’s upbringing and that of the rest of the family reveals itself, it becomes clear that alcohol is a sop for these people’s deep pain.

Fanny’s sister Denny is the only one in the group who does not drink. Over time, her bizarre practice of treating her 17-year old Jack Russell like an infant child seems positively normal compared with their drunk brother’s intimidating rages and the mother’s affair with a fireman 20 years younger than her.

Denny’s ancient and hobbled terrier is a focus of much amusement and fury (and not a little accidental crushing), but this is not truly a play about dogs. It is a play about a family, unconditional love as well as the explicitly conditional variety. Sometimes it’s hard to watch as Fanny’s family members go after each other like two dogs in an alley. But it’s also too good to look away.