At ninety, Mabel Tidings Bigelow insists on celebrating her daughter and granddaughter's annual visit with an archaic croquet party. As it unfolds, she relives vignettes from the last eighty years that subtly interleave past and present to reveal the precise moment of opportunity lost and love rejected that define her life. A vibrant portrait of Mabel takes shape: her flashes of wit and humor, resilience, disappointments, youthful spunk and geriatric willfulness. Her Boston blue blood family expected daughters to applaud from the sidelines, but Mabel had one shining moment of achievement: she was the first woman to swim the English channel. Her willfulness did not extend to rejecting a socially ideal fiancee for love. Pride's Crossing is a rewarding challenge for a talented cast.
Pride's Crossing premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, CA in January 1997 under the direction of Jack O'Brien.