STONE FRUIT HC

Sparse, subtle, and absolutely killer, Stone Fruit is a stand-out debut from Lee Lai that explores complex relationships with extreme tenderness. Bron and Ray relish the time spent with Ray’s niece Nessie, a seeming oasis from their real lives. Playing and singing together, the three grow wild and monstrous, creative and free, their forms becoming looser and looser – an illusion shattered by a phone call from Amanda’s mother, demanding her home. The continued themes of freedom, illusion, childhood, responsibility, and monstrosity are masterfully explored in the various relationships between the three women, who come together and fall apart throughout the narrative. Not optimistic, but compassionate, Stone Fruit pushes its characters to test and examine the expectations we have of our relationships in order to come to peace with ourselves.