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Sisters on the Ground
THE STORY: Massachusetts, 1825.
Martha was buried by all six of her sisters, including me. That spring, we started sleeping outdoors. We didn’t go back inside. What with Papa. Harriet got cholera. Beth got Married. Hannah began bundling. Abigail got drunk. Lying on the dirt, facing the sky, we started saying sentences to each other.
Martha was buried by all six of her sisters, including me. That spring, we started sleeping outdoors. We didn’t go back inside. What with Papa. Harriet got cholera. Beth got Married. Hannah began bundling. Abigail got drunk. Lying on the dirt, facing the sky, we started saying sentences to each other.
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84 pages, Paperback
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 26, 2020
This is my third Posner play and they are all pretty strange, but this one is just too out there - it doesn't 'read' well, and doubt if it would play much better. I THINK it is intended to be a send-up of the patriarchy, and it's admirable for having an almost all-female cast - but phew...
March 1, 2024
First of all: this play is much better experienced than read. That being said, read it immediately and read it out loud.
You’re reading these girls discover language, identity, and responsibilities in real time. Posner plays with punctuation beautifully to create a experimental liveliness to the girls’ dialogue.
The sisters up until the start of this play have been kept isolated from everyone, routinely abused, and have rarely spoken to even each other. This is until their eldest sister Martha dies, and the control of their drunk of a father loosens enough that the sisters find themselves alone together outside, close to Martha’s grave. And they can’t find the words to describe her, but they start to find questions. From there they start actually TALKING and it’s just… electric! The overlapping youthful energy reminded me of being with my own sibling. Stories get told, the beginnings of identity take hold, and possibilities are twinkling like the stars!
You remember these moments because they just as quickly come to an end. Martha was promised to someone and the dowry was paid, so now the second eldest has to take her place. Harriet, the once third eldest and notably rebellious sister, takes issue with Beth leaving. She doesn’t want to ever go back inside; this version of life with the stars above and her sisters close is perfect. Harriet fights against change and inevitable reality the whole play, as each act of the play we see more and more of her sisters slip away. First through influence as they all develop who they are and place that identity into the world. Through marriage, or death, or career it doesn’t matter.
What is tragedy and what isn’t depends on your view. The sisters lack a lot of agency due to the time they were born in, and no amount of imagining the future can change that. But I find it really beautiful, how their own words create something so active and true for themselves. It creates an intimacy towards yourself and the people you share that process with. It allows if ever briefly, for you to be known and defined and real. Perspective is experience and experience is reality. Even though we’re ultimately bound to reality, there still is power in just the act of imagining something else.
I love the last exchange with Abigail.
“What is heaven? I know it’s not a wheel.”
“It’s just lying like this but against The Sky.”
You’re reading these girls discover language, identity, and responsibilities in real time. Posner plays with punctuation beautifully to create a experimental liveliness to the girls’ dialogue.
The sisters up until the start of this play have been kept isolated from everyone, routinely abused, and have rarely spoken to even each other. This is until their eldest sister Martha dies, and the control of their drunk of a father loosens enough that the sisters find themselves alone together outside, close to Martha’s grave. And they can’t find the words to describe her, but they start to find questions. From there they start actually TALKING and it’s just… electric! The overlapping youthful energy reminded me of being with my own sibling. Stories get told, the beginnings of identity take hold, and possibilities are twinkling like the stars!
You remember these moments because they just as quickly come to an end. Martha was promised to someone and the dowry was paid, so now the second eldest has to take her place. Harriet, the once third eldest and notably rebellious sister, takes issue with Beth leaving. She doesn’t want to ever go back inside; this version of life with the stars above and her sisters close is perfect. Harriet fights against change and inevitable reality the whole play, as each act of the play we see more and more of her sisters slip away. First through influence as they all develop who they are and place that identity into the world. Through marriage, or death, or career it doesn’t matter.
What is tragedy and what isn’t depends on your view. The sisters lack a lot of agency due to the time they were born in, and no amount of imagining the future can change that. But I find it really beautiful, how their own words create something so active and true for themselves. It creates an intimacy towards yourself and the people you share that process with. It allows if ever briefly, for you to be known and defined and real. Perspective is experience and experience is reality. Even though we’re ultimately bound to reality, there still is power in just the act of imagining something else.
I love the last exchange with Abigail.
“What is heaven? I know it’s not a wheel.”
“It’s just lying like this but against The Sky.”
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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August 19, 2026Beatrice “reading” was spectacular but Im not sure my thoughts on the rest yet
April 20, 2021
I actually liked this play a lot.... Though I guess I’m in the minority?
July 16, 2026
um i loved this kind of devastated its rated so low. the dialogue was by far the highlight for me, my favorite contemporary plays are the ones with this dreamlike, stream of consciousness kind of flow to the conversations. i think it makes the characters feel so rich and layered— their minds work and thoughts move in ways that we are not fully allowed to see.
LOVED these sisters and the girls they interacted with. they are just some homegrown, salt of the earth, weirdos and it’s lovely to be reminded that weirdos have always been around. the one thing that stuck out to me in a bad way was the recurring “i wish (vague description of a modern day concept like skyscrapers, cellphones, etc) existed!” it felt a bit awkward and i don’t know if it conveyed quite what it was supposed to for me. but that’s such a small part of a text i otherwise loved.
would this play be hard to pull off? YEAH. i know i would be extremely picky about how i’d like to see this done. the dialogue, as much as i adore it, could read as confusing and even annoying in the wrong hands. the humor is very specific to gen z in my mind, in a post-post-irony kind of way.
one of the best plays i’ve read in a while!!
LOVED these sisters and the girls they interacted with. they are just some homegrown, salt of the earth, weirdos and it’s lovely to be reminded that weirdos have always been around. the one thing that stuck out to me in a bad way was the recurring “i wish (vague description of a modern day concept like skyscrapers, cellphones, etc) existed!” it felt a bit awkward and i don’t know if it conveyed quite what it was supposed to for me. but that’s such a small part of a text i otherwise loved.
would this play be hard to pull off? YEAH. i know i would be extremely picky about how i’d like to see this done. the dialogue, as much as i adore it, could read as confusing and even annoying in the wrong hands. the humor is very specific to gen z in my mind, in a post-post-irony kind of way.
one of the best plays i’ve read in a while!!
January 9, 2024
I love this play. Harriet is a fantastic character and the rest of the girls have incredible detail to them as well.
February 19, 2024
surprisingly moving. the moments where the girls basically "predicted" future inventions feels very contrived though
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May 26, 2025this was a staff pick at the drama book shop—strange and beautiful little play with a lot going on below the surface
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews