Description

Family therapist, Dr. Phoebe Gardner, has written a groundbreaking book entitled Brutal Honesty, which is about to be released nationwide. Anticipated to be an international bestseller and the newest rage in pop psychology, a high profile television newsmagazine is planning a one-hour special at her home. A notoriously ruthless newswoman will interview Phoebe, her husband, Paul, and their 9-year old son, Jasper. Cameras will reveal them to the nation as the preeminent example of an emotionally and psychologically healthy familyethe result of Phoebees work promoting uncensored, brutal honesty within the family unit. The morning of the interview, Phoebe is shocked by the unexpected arrival of her parents, grandmother, sister and brotheres pregnant Japanese girlfriend. When the television newswoman finds out that Phoebe’s extended family is visiting, she insists that everyone must participate in the interview. Phoebe faces her family with all their amassed neuroses, psychoses and family secrets, and she is left with no choice but to heal her own family before the newswoman and cameras arrive. The problem is that she has only an hour and 20 minutes to do it. Phoebees methods of using childhood games to access the inherent honesty of a child prove disastrous when it comes to her profoundly dysfunctional family. So, she announces that shees holding them captive for emotional ransom. Her demands Honesty, vulnerability and trutheyikes! Truly a fate worse than death. They must spill the family secrets, demons, cover-ups and unexpressed feelings. Will Phoebees family successfully exemplify her lifees work before millions of TV viewers Or will the family devastate her reputation and end her career Phoebe discovers that the state of her familyes mental health is the key to her own. Unit set. Approximate running time: 90 minutes.