The Will of Bernard Boynton: A Play in Two Acts

Bernie was once a promising country singer, but he lost nearly everything-his career, his home, his marriage-and retreated to a rural village in Maine. His two sons are a chip off the old block. There is Rich, who relies on his acerbic wit and libertarian grounding to guard him from entanglement, and Evan, whose spiritual longing moves him out into the world far from his New England roots. So when Bernie dies years later, the brothers’ estrangement is engrained. Now middle-aged, they must come to terms with each other and the mixed legacy handed them. The Will of Bernard Boynton is a soft-hearted tribute to a rock-hard people.

Maybe the best we can do in this life-no, maybe our work is to undo the karma our ancestors have built up. Someone has to atone. Their stories… all stored up inside of us, moving us, making decisions for us we would never agree to otherwise.

The play takes place in summer in 2012, and Christmas time in 1993, at the home of Bernie (Bernard) Boynton in Liberty, Maine-a rural, inland community, pop. 927. The home is basically one room, and crammed with the wreckage of his previous life. There is also, briefly, a visit to a morgue and a crematorium in the nearby small city of Belfast.