TALES OF THE LOST FORMICANS, by Constance Congdon

Amherst College professor Congdon’s play has achieved the status of a modern classic This witty and passionate play explores the story of a man with Alzheimer’s and at the same time turns into “a travel guide to Middle America conducted by aliens from outer space.”

Life is not organized around a coherent narrative, despite how much we would like it to be. Life can be messy, jumpy, nonlinear, fragmentary and discordant, and we might find ourselves desperately trying to make sense out of it. Tales of the Lost Formicans reflects this messiness and the effort to make sense of it, both in its content and in its form.

In this session, we will talk about the themes of this play: adolescence, aging parent, lost love and divorce, memory, and the strength of the familial unit, and how the playwright’s use of the device of the futuristic Alien archaelogoists observing the behavior and artifacts of a dysfunctional mid-western American family affects the way we see it ourselves.