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But from the moment Peggy takes her place in Ellen’s car to head to lunch, she knows something’s up. Her son, Warren—a schoolteacher who should be at work—is in the backseat. As they ride to the restaurant, forced cheerfulness, miscommunications, and tortured silences show a family worn down by obligatory intimacy.
Shinner overlooks the importance of Four Places‘ key animating event: before the action of the play starts, Ellen and Warren have already made arrangements that will rob their mother of her autonomy and most of her dignity. As they drive Peggy to the restaurant, they know they’ve grievously betrayed her. This knowledge should give the play an uncomfortable, even menacing edge from its first moments. But for too much of the play’s first half, the only apparent discomfort onstage is a generalized awkwardness between a mother and her grown children.
