In short frenetic scenes, at once daringly stark and light-hearted, we see their marriage careen out of control in the context of their families: Boo’s brutal father (Karl) and falsely cheerful mother (Soot), Bette’s sisters (neurotic Emily, snide Joan) and parents (repressed mother Margaret, kind but helpless father Paul). Bette’s series of miscarriages and Boo’s drinking doom the marriage, and yet we see early in the play that life goes on.