Review: In "Echoes in the Garden," a Conflict Between Roots and Branches
Echoes in the Garden Written by Ross G. Hewitt Directed by Aimee Todoroff Presented by American Bard Theater Company at the Chain Theatre 312 West 36 Street, Floor 4, Manhattan, NYC October 20-November 6, 2021 Cheri Wicks, Sarah Young, and Arthur Aulisi. Photo by Basil Rodericks Having closed the same night it opened in March 2020 due to COVID-19, Ross G. Hewitt's Echoes in the Garden is in bloom once again at the Chain Theatre. Drawing on some of Hewitt's and his mother's own experiences, the play primarily chronicles a 1962 visit, the first in several years, by Bronx resident Ruth (Sarah Young) to her Pennsylvania parents and the house where she grew up—rendered in an impressive cutaway-design set by Mike Mroch—but which also incorporates scenes of household memories stretching back to 1922. Within the tumultuous context of the early Civil Rights Movement, Echoes in the Garden probes reverberations of love and loss spanning three generations. Near the beginning of the ...