The Captain’s lost his wife — he’s marooned in assisted living. He asks his caregiver, Clove, “You’re not going to try to change the equipment, are you?” “The equipment is my body, Captain.” The Captain says, “It’s not my place to tell you what to do. But in ten years, when I go staggering down the sidewalk in my skivvies, it’s my right to float away on a sheet of ice like the Eskimos, if I want to. So don’t try to stop me.”

Meanwhile the son of the Captain’s dead war buddy is trip-wired for trauma. His girlfriend is shipping out. “I may not be in love with any MAN!” But even with all the laughs, in this cautionary tale, everyone is Swamped!

Co-producer Betsy Williams writes, “This play pushes us to grapple with many of the coexisting and sometimes contradictory cultural issues of our time — gender fluidity, control of our bodies, aging, competing relationship and personal needs, family loyalty versus political conscience.”

“Swamped Is a culture clash of red and blue state values,” says Western Mass playwright Court Dorsey, founding member of the folk cabaret group Bright Morning Star. “It’s a healing saga, a cautionary tale. All told, it’s a story of personal contact, which may be the only road to reconciliation we have left.”