Village Theatre Guild's 'Grace and Glorie' explores issues of life, loss

When Village Theatre Guild Director Charles Bernstein selected Tom Ziegler's "Grace and Glorie" to open the Glen Ellyn group's season, he wanted to challenge the audience by exploring fundamental questions surrounding the uneasy relationship between terminally ill Grace and hospice volunteer Glorie.

How do we deal with loss? What does it all mean?

"We can't provide definitive answers, but we can provide some thought-provoking suggestions in a moving and entertaining way," Bernstein said.

The show continues with weekend performances through Saturday, Nov. 8, at the guild's theater near the northwest corner of Park Boulevard and Butterfield Road in Glen Ellyn. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 3 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $18.

The guild's stage has been transformed into Grace's rustic mountain cabin, where an earnest hospice worker shows up to impose her city-bred values on an old woman whose life was of another era.

Bernstein has nothing but praise for Liliana Mitchell of Chicago, who plays Grace, a feisty woman of 90.

"I don't know her age but suspect that it is well under 90. Yet she makes you believe," he said. "That's the highest compliment I can give."

Likewise, Lisa Dolnics of Naperville becomes the much younger Glorie as the mismatched women draw closer to each other through shared stories of hardships and personal loss.

Set in the Blue Ridge Mountains, the clash of disparate personalities in "Grace and Glorie" is as much a warm comedy as a poignant drama. After success off-Broadway in 1996, the play was adapted for television by Hallmark Hall of Fame.

To reserve tickets, call (630) 469-8230 or visit villagetheatreguild.org.