The Trip To Bountiful

The Trip To Bountiful is a Horton Foote play about the inexplicable pull we all feel toward home. The 1953 literary masterpiece addresses the human longing to return to our home. Wherever that home is located and whenever we picture it are unique to each person but the desire, the intense need to return is universal.

The play premiered on NBC on March 1, 1953 starring Lillian Gish, Eva Marie Saint and Eileen Heckhart. The televised appearance was followed by a 39-show run on Broadway the same year. In late 1985 The Trip To Bountiful motion picture starring Geraldine Page was released. The cast included John Heard, Carlin Glynn, Rebecca De Mornay and Richard Bradford. It was a powerful film well worth watching again.

This year brought The Trip To Bountiful to Broadway once again. Cicely Tyson commands the audience's attention from her first syllable on stage to her last. Her portrayal of Carrie Watts prompts standing ovations night after night. She owns the character. You feel her ache. You want to draw upon some force that will deliver her home. She is supported by Vanessa Williams, Cuba Gooding Jr., Condola Rashad and Tom Wopat. They are not your typical supporting cast and their performances are essential to the telling of this incredibile tale. Their skill and artistry are an integral part of this ensemble performance.


We cheer for sports teams and politicians. Why not cheer for an elderly woman trying to make it home ? Why not be drawn in by an emotional story and find yourself wanting, then needing a character to triumph.

But this return to "Bountiful" is not limited to imaginary characters. Each year my grandmother longed to return to her beloved Alabama. Each year my mother experiences a restorative trip home. My aunt longed to go home. Their childhoods are there. Their memories are there. Part of what makes them so strong exists there. Their stories are there. Their hearts are there...in " Bountiful".

Bountiful crops and clear water and firm handshakes. Cool lemonade and bountiful fish in the pristine streams. Bountiful forests filled with luscious green trees and grass covering the rolling hills. Bountiful stories and bountiful laughter. Bountiful silence and stillness and then crickets chirping. Mouth-watering fried chicken and ice-cold watermelon. Porches filled with people you .......love.

People rush to amusement parks and beaches and mountains and historical landmarks . They book flights to faraway places and arrange tee times and tea times. Perhaps we need to slow down and take a trip to Bountiful.



* On June 9, 2013 , Cicely Tyson was awarded a Tony for best leading actress in a play for her performance in The Trip To Bountiful...