Elizabeth Peavey At Rockport Opera House

Elizabeth Peavey’s Acclaimed One-Person Show at the Rockport Opera House November 3

Celebrated Maine author Elizabeth Peavey has been touring her hilarious and heartbreaking one-woman show, “My Mother’s Clothes Are Not My Mother,” to venues across the state. The Camden Public Library and the Rockport Public Library will collaborate to co-host a matinee performance of “My Mother’s Clothes” on Saturday, November 3, at 2:00 pm at the Rockport Opera house. Tickets are $10 and will benefit the libraries. Tickets are available at both libraries and at the performance, cash or check only. The performance is the first in what is hoped will be an annual literary and theatrical collaboration for the neighboring libraries.

“My Mother’s Clothes” is performed in a series of connected monologues by Peavey as she confronts the loss of a parent. Losing your final parent is difficult enough, and presents an additional challenge: What are you supposed to do with all your family’s STUFF? For months, she avoided wading through her mother’s things. But when her mom’s condo sells, she’s forced to reckon with its contents. As she does, objects surface, triggering memories from her childhood. Possessions she once thought would be easy to chuck -- the Polynesian hors d’oeuvre platter, the outdated coat from Bernie’s Fashions, the milk glass and tea cups -- suddenly take on epic stature, forcing the question: How do we know when to let go?

The show premiered to a series of sell-out houses at the St. Lawrence Performing Arts Center in Portland last fall. It traveled to Sugarloaf in February, where it was received by another packed house. In April, Peavey gave two performances at the Chocolate Church Art Center in Bath (her hometown), followed by another sellout at the Magic Lantern in Bridgton, as a benefit for the Bridgton Library.

“The piece is peppered with humor,” said Bob Keyes in the Portland Press Herald, “but does not gloss over the difficult aspects of the mother-daughter relationship or the emotional turmoil that Peavey experienced following her death.”

Elizabeth Peavey is the author of Glorious Slow Going: Maine Stories of Art, Adventure and Friendship, which was a finalist in the 2012 Maine Literary Awards; Outta My Way: An Odd Life Lived Loudly; and of Maine & Me, which was awarded the Maine Literary Award for Best Maine-themed Book. Her writing has been featured in Down East magazine since 1993. Her monthly humor column, “Outta My Yard,” can be found at thebollard.com. She teaches public speaking at the University of Southern Maine and has also taught creative nonfiction at the University of Maine at Farmington. She is a frequent guest lecturer and speaker at schools, libraries and associations across the state.

For more information visit the libraries’ websites or call 236-3440 for the Camden Public Library or the Rockport Public Library at 236-3642.