num_pages: 72
description: In a mental facility in New York, Gabby, a quietly unassuming, guilt-wracked widow, comes to collect her daughter, Nicole, who has been institutionalized for over a year after a suicide attempt. Mother and daughter, a seemingly mismatched couple, are now together after years of separation; Nicole, in a mild manic state, is witty, brilliant, artistic, passionate and wildly courageous. Gabby, sharing her worries with the audience, reads the worst into the radical notions her daughter expounds, and is consistently threatened by Nicole's views on how Gabby's life must change. Obsession is the core of Nicole's illness and the motor that drives from wanting to save Gabby, to saving the world; to enjoying beauty in life, to wanting the cat she long ago relinquished to her ex-husband restored to her own safe keeping. Trying to gain order in her life, Nicole drags a reluctant Gabby through a whirlwind of adventures that include karate lessons, demonstrations, lectures, work at a Brooklyn day care center, and finally to kidnapping Isabella, Nicole's cat. While on this roller-coaster ride, Gabby begins to understand the torment her daughter has been suffering and gradually becomes an ally. They bond, but Nicole, in trying to fill the gaps in her disoriented life, is eventually overwhelmed by her illness and thwarted plans. She heartbreakingly spirals down and once again must be institutionalized. But she has left Gabby transformed. A new woman, Gabby is focused, fearless, empowered and formidable, the kind of mother and friend Nicole will eventually need when she once again emerges from the hell-hole of mental illness.
language: English
title: Not Waving - Acting Edition
titlecomplete: Not Waving - Acting Edition
ratings_count: 2
publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.