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The Women of Lockerbie
A mother from New Jersey roams the hills of Lockerbie Scotland, looking for her son s remains that were lost in the crash of Pan Am 103. She meets the women of Lockerbie, who are fighting the U.S. government to obtain the clothing of the victims found in the plane s wreckage. The women, determined to convert an act of hatred into an act of love, want to wash the clothes of the dead and return them to the victim s families. THE WOMEN OF LOCKERBIE is loosely inspired by a true story, although the characters and situations in the play are purely fictional. Written in the structure of a Greek tragedy, it is a poetic drama about the triumph of love over hate. Winner of the silver medal in the Onassis International Playwriting Competition and the Kennedy Center Fund for New American Plays award.
110 pages, Paperback
First published December 30, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 12, 2019
This play is so, so thought-provoking.
As a genre, it teeters from realist to postmodern, and there's definitely a Caryl Churchill vibe to it.
There is a lot of universal appeal to this play. Themes of grief, desire for revenge (as the result of the grief), free will, decision making, and masculinity vs. feminity gives the story's already dynamic story additional dimension.
As a genre, it teeters from realist to postmodern, and there's definitely a Caryl Churchill vibe to it.
There is a lot of universal appeal to this play. Themes of grief, desire for revenge (as the result of the grief), free will, decision making, and masculinity vs. feminity gives the story's already dynamic story additional dimension.
July 29, 2023
Sobbed! I want to play Bill one day so badly!
August 25, 2025
Beautifully written. Dream role Madeline.
September 15, 2009
Just read this play written in 2005 by a woman, and it's pretty great. It isn't maudlin...it doesn't go overboard, and it's particularly timely now that the man convicted just got out. Walla Walla Community College will be producing it in Winter Quarter, and I'm looking forward to helping with the sound and lighting design of a Scottish setting. It also has Greek Tragedy as its form (complete with a woman greek chorus) and that makes me excited. Yay! Women playwrights, newish work, good women characters...I'm happy...
March 8, 2014
Read it with an eye to producing it at the High School where I teach. It is good but I don't know if it is the right move for my high school students at this stage. The plain verse is beautiful but the constraints of staging would make it tricky to do very well. I will keep thinking about it but may take a pass on it.
November 26, 2016
Finished this awhile ago, as this is our 2017 entry into the IHSA Drama competition. I love the form of the play, the acting challenges it presents, and the weight of its message. I don't think plays do all that well on paper, and the Green tragedy definitely suffers for being flattened onto the page, but I am excited to produce this one.
July 16, 2016
I just loved this script, I could not put it down. It is VERY powerful and easy to get into. The reader can really feel like they are there witnessing the accident and the aftermath. For being so short one would not imagine how much feeling this script would give off.
January 9, 2009
I just reread it while teaching sections and I never fail to choke up. It's not the best play I have ever read but it sure upsets me in that way that is totally necessary from time to time.
February 4, 2012
This is my one-act for drama, and the entire cast and I will always have this fantastic play close at hand in our hearts! :)
December 1, 2012
Beautifully written!
November 23, 2014
Our theater company produced this several years ago. Powerful, beautifully written piece.
December 17, 2015
This dang play devastated me. The grieving was tangible.
October 22, 2024
I performed this play recently and it was a really wonderful experience
November 4, 2022
The Women of Lockerbie takes place on December 21, 1995, which was the seventh anniversary of the crash of Pan Am Flight 103. This aircraft was blown up by terrorists in midair, its awful debris plummeting to earth in the remote town of Lockerbie in northern Scotland. In the play, an American couple, Bill and Madeleine Livingston, have journeyed here to attend a memorial service, but Maddy, spectacularly inconsolable for all these seven years, spends her visit roaming the hills, searching vainly for even the tiniest trace of her dead son Adam. Bill and Maddy's marriage has been strained to the breaking point by her boundless grieving and, we learn, his apparent inability to grieve at all: their personal crisis comes to a head tonight.
At the same time, another crisis is brewing among the women of Lockerbie: they have been seeking to obtain the clothing left behind by 103's victims, so that they can clean it and return it to the families. This, they say, will help them heal; as we discover, they, as the witnesses to the disaster, have actually seen what the others have nightmares about: the body parts, the blood, the unidentifiable detritus of the crash. In the play's best scene, the women, represented here by a chorus of three, describe what they were doing on December 21, 1988 just before their world changed forever--and just after. One of them lost a husband and daughter to heavy metal falling unaccountably out of the sky; these women are, perhaps, the most innocent victims of all.
Now they are the caretakers of a legacy that people like Maddy and Bill lack both the immediacy and the objectivity to understand. Brevoort smartly places these two stories--both of them at once personal and universal--side by side. Her characters and her chorus speak to each other; more important, they listen to each other.
Brevoort also provides a villain, and here her work stumbles just a bit: he's a brash, stereotypically Ugly American bureaucrat, a middle manager from the State Department named George Jones sent to collect the clothing and other remains and, per agency regulations, incinerate them. He's needed as the object of the women of Lockerbie's defiance--there really would be no play without him--and he's drawn entirely without nuance or sympathy; he's a device, plain and simple. Reacting against him, Maddy goes on a rampage worthy of a Medea or an Oedipus--again, it's a bit of a strain to remember that Brevoort is dealing in big archetypes here, after the intimate revelations that have come before. But she manages her climax magnificently.
At the same time, another crisis is brewing among the women of Lockerbie: they have been seeking to obtain the clothing left behind by 103's victims, so that they can clean it and return it to the families. This, they say, will help them heal; as we discover, they, as the witnesses to the disaster, have actually seen what the others have nightmares about: the body parts, the blood, the unidentifiable detritus of the crash. In the play's best scene, the women, represented here by a chorus of three, describe what they were doing on December 21, 1988 just before their world changed forever--and just after. One of them lost a husband and daughter to heavy metal falling unaccountably out of the sky; these women are, perhaps, the most innocent victims of all.
Now they are the caretakers of a legacy that people like Maddy and Bill lack both the immediacy and the objectivity to understand. Brevoort smartly places these two stories--both of them at once personal and universal--side by side. Her characters and her chorus speak to each other; more important, they listen to each other.
Brevoort also provides a villain, and here her work stumbles just a bit: he's a brash, stereotypically Ugly American bureaucrat, a middle manager from the State Department named George Jones sent to collect the clothing and other remains and, per agency regulations, incinerate them. He's needed as the object of the women of Lockerbie's defiance--there really would be no play without him--and he's drawn entirely without nuance or sympathy; he's a device, plain and simple. Reacting against him, Maddy goes on a rampage worthy of a Medea or an Oedipus--again, it's a bit of a strain to remember that Brevoort is dealing in big archetypes here, after the intimate revelations that have come before. But she manages her climax magnificently.
March 6, 2020
Just recently finished up a production of this play. Loved the story and found it equally heartbreaking and hopeful. Interesting characters, challenging style and beautiful verse writing. Written in the style of Greek Theatre, this piece is a mammoth of a play, but tells the story of the women of Lockerbie with passion and heart. Developed characters, high stakes and great intentions. A little slow at the start and not full of action, but look for the moments of intensity. Find the comedy in this piece, in the darkest of places, one must always find a light. Well done.
March 17, 2024
Someone stage this please.
A modern traditional Greek tragedy centering on the aftermath of the bombing, this play has resonance now with the multi-unfolding tragedies across the globe. Someone is always dying. Someone always has to pick up the pieces.
I found it odd that one bit of the main drama happens off-stage (considered a huge no-no in playwriting). But then again, so many of the main actions happen where we can't see them.
Maybe if more people saw this play, there'd be a little more thought about the consequences.
A modern traditional Greek tragedy centering on the aftermath of the bombing, this play has resonance now with the multi-unfolding tragedies across the globe. Someone is always dying. Someone always has to pick up the pieces.
I found it odd that one bit of the main drama happens off-stage (considered a huge no-no in playwriting). But then again, so many of the main actions happen where we can't see them.
Maybe if more people saw this play, there'd be a little more thought about the consequences.
July 5, 2023
A simple plot with heavy character development. The Greek tragedy inspirations are prevalent.
- I'm not sure if I'm just having an extra emotional day but I definitely teared up
- I'm not sure if I'm just having an extra emotional day but I definitely teared up
December 31, 2023
what if come from away didn’t have music and was also sadder somehow (and scottish)
January 19, 2012
3 1/2 Star. Although I was wary to read a modern example of the classic tragedy format, Breevort uses it well. It really allows the reader to understand the tragedy of the crash and its after effects in a way that is honest but not overwhelming. The contrast between Madeleine's emotionally charged expressions of grief and those of her husband and the women of Lockerbie gives one room to dive into the emotions without fear of being drowned. I definitely hope to see this on stage someday.
May 13, 2017
Such a beautiful play. Some may say this play is somber, but I say it's hopeful and powerful. The characters are so interesting and powerful.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews