Toronto, Mississippi

Jhana is a beautiful, mentally handicapped eighteen-year-old who lives with her mother, Maddie, and their boarder, Bill, a poet. Jhana's father, King, an Elvis impersonator, shows up part way through the first act and it's his return to this unusual family after a long absence that really galvanizes all the characters into action.

While this is a play about the power of family and love, it is finally about self-destruction and creation. At its heart is Jhana, whose character begs the question whether the other characters, in their own ways, are any less handicapped. She's good company--funny, driven, passionate, and yearning for the same things those around her yearn for--if they can give her the space to achieve her dreams.

This play came out of the author's decade of work with mentally handicapped adults and children as a life skills instructor. Re-released in a revised and updated edition, it is Joan MacLeod's first full-length play, receiving more than twenty international productions over the past twenty years.