Chris Hanna has managed to weave Shakespeare’s great work together with some truly heartfelt accounts of the struggles children and parents go through as illness and time force them to switch roles. The golden touch however, was that each of these accounts was taken from real families in our surrounding community.

King Lear: The Storm at Home takes the audience through the entire journey of getting old and watching someone you love getting old from all angles. It is not biased; it is honest. It gives you glimpses of how each person feels and handles the challenges of age and touches upon every point of view. Hanna shows the guilt children feel as they become frustrated with burden of caring for ailing parents. He shows us how embarrassing it can be for the aging parent when they have to be fed or changed by those people whom they did those things for in the past. Hanna even manages to bring in the point of view of those people who step in when it becomes too much for the family to handle, such as nurses and hospice workers.

I recommend this play to anyone who has dealt or is dealing with or has dealt with family illness. The lessons learned in this piece will, if nothing else, show you that you are not alone. The frustration, the heartache, the moments of laughter or tears brought on by sheer exhaustion, and those moments toward the end where the love and anguish of the end of a life mix together with memories and tears and peaceful silence and finally goodbye.

Now one word of caution the “King Lear “aspect of this show is very much abridged and shaped to drive the real point of the show. So do not go see this show expecting an adaptation of the Shakespeare play. The scenes included from King Lear are there to reinforce the modern day struggle of the young and the elderly. The play switches back and forth. So if you are a purist, try to have an open mind because King Lear is merely a vehicle the narrator uses to parallel his own experiences. It serves as a sort of guide to the journey the narrator goes through with his own father and with each challenge the narrator goes through. Shakespeare's King Lear makes more sense and becomes more personal to him because of his experiences.

The production itself was very well put together. The entire cast was amazing (bravo to you all) . Mr. Hanna should be extremely proud of this work. I truly recommend this show for everyone. I wish I had seen it before I lost my grandmother - it would have provided much comfort.

This play will change your perspective.