FUNERAL FOOD

Set in the 1980s and filmed entirely on location in the USA, in Darien, Georgia, Funeral Food is best described as a searing family drama, interlaced with plenty of dark comedic moments. Martha Lord and her eldest son, Marlow, return home from the funeral of her youngest son, Dallas. Martha is feeling "cloudy", her term for vengeful and downright nasty. Her sister, Dora May, is fixing the cocktails whilst Dora May's granddaughter, Pearl Louise has fled to the sanctuary of her bedroom. Matters take a comedic turn when eldest sister, Laverne, arrives having missed the funeral.

Martha is spoiling for a fight. First with her uptight (Martha's word for emotionally crippled) son, Marlow, a fifty year old man, sadly all too familiar with his mother's rampages. And secondly, with Dora May, who is the only person in the notorious Lord family to stand her ground with the force of nature that is Martha.

The reason for Martha's cloudy disposition is that they buried a coffin full of bricks. A sham funeral to hide the secret that Dallas actually died in New York! It's not that Martha wasn't kind off proud that her boy was a dancer on Broadway, it was just best not to speak of it!

As she sips her cocktails and wages war on her family, Martha's biggest fear is that Dallas's lover, Page Reynolds, a strikingly beautiful man, would dare to come to Georgia, as, during that final, cold, phone call, Dallas insisted he should, and, in doing so, unravel years of lies and deceit.

Having sat quietly alone on the Greyhound bus for several hours, Page catches the eye of an elderly woman, Loretta Claybourne, who moves to the adjacent seat and engages Page in conversation.

Martha's worst fears are confirmed when later Page arrives on her front porch accompanied by a stranger, Loretta. In the days that follow, Page and Loretta are the cause of a strange tension within the house. An ominous intensity that verges on revenge. As emotions run high, secrets are revealed, alliances formed and hidden agendas unmasked.


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