How To Write A New Book For the Bible

Yes, we went to see this with Miss Pam and Deb and were lucky to see Pastor Carlson and his wife.

Plot Summary: Bill Cain, a professional writer with deadlines, moves from New York to Syracuse to care for his feisty, strong-willed, charismatic, and loving mother who is suffering and dying from cancer. When he follows the age-old advice to “write what you know” and writes about his own family, he discovers that sometimes those we are closest to are the biggest mysteries of all.  Although the play makes big jumps in time and place, Bill narrates the story of the final six months of Mary Cain’s life – from the pain in her back, to her diagnosis of terminal illness, to her eventual decline and death. Throughout the story, Bill explains the present with past episodes involving his brother Paul, father Pete, and mother. 

Who's Who

• Bill Cain – The narrator of the play, a professional writer and Jesuit priest, “the scholar” of the family.

• Mary Cain – Bill’s mother, a frail but determined 82 year old who loves sports and her family, and believes there is nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it and have God on your side.
• Paul Cain – Bill’s older brother, “the athlete” of the family, a Vietnam Vet who remains haunted by his role in the violence and death of the war, currently a high school math teacher living in El Paso, TX.
• Pete Cain – Bill’s father, dead of inoperable pancreatic cancer, now a ghost figure that advises and supports his wife Mary through her illness.

The Sons of Cain & The Lost Epistle of Paul

• As part of his novel How to Write a New Book for the Bible, playwright Bill Cain explores his relationship with his family in two unique and intriguing ways.

• He chronicles major events in the family’s life in the style of the Old Testament, specifically echoing the biblical story of Cain and Abel, in a piece entitled “The Sons of Cain.”

•  He also recounts his brother Paul’s experiences in Vietnam, and how he and his family reacted to those, by sharing many of his brother’s letters home. Cain titles the piece, “The Lost Epistle of Paul’, deliberately evoking the letters of the original apostle Paul. 

We loved it!

 

Buenas!