The Sandbox

As the central figure of the play, Grandma is the protagonist whose objective is to reassert the human dignity that has been stolen from her in the aging process. She is 86 and the play is her premature funeral, at which the other characters are still waiting for her die. Grandma married a farmer at age 17, but she shed the position of the subordinate wife at age 30 when her husband died. She raised Mommy as a single mother and shows disdain for her daughter’s choice to marry Daddy for his money. Grandma resents her daughter for taking her agency and self-sufficiency away by moving her from her farm to Mommy and Daddy’s house in the city, a move which also indicates the incongruent values and preferences between mother and daughter Just as Mommy has shaped Daddy into a child by treating him like one, Grandma has been infantilized until she regressed into infanthood, and first only abler to screech and squall. By ignoring Grandma, Mommy and Daddy have functionally robbed her of the power of speech, but Grandma regains her linguistic abilities as soon as there is an audience to listen.