Who's There?

“Seemed harmless at first for Momma to keep Bunk’s amputated leg in the freezer.” Who’s There? is an absurd comedy about a family with a lion’s share of peculiarities. Momma, Sister, Ivylee and Bunk live on a chicken farm in the rural south. Each day the women have a memorial service for Bunk’s severed leg, which they otherwise keep in the freezer. Bunk lost his leg ten years earlier when he went berserk and started wringing the necks of all their chickens. Momma fired a warning shot but closed her eyes when the gun went off and accidentally blew Bunk’s leg off. Bunk became so peculiar that he was banished from the house and lives outside as the family pet, “Precious.” Each day the women wait—Momma waits for Bunk to return or for God to fetch her home; Ivylee waits for her imaginary lover, Mr. Robinson; Sister waits for relief from the drudgery of running the farm and maintaining the family. Momma manages life through make-believe and is always looking for spiritual signs. Although they are all around her, she cannot see them. There are several knocks at the door, but Momma cannot answer. A rock with a note appears on the front porch, which reads “It’s me. I want to come home.” Each of the women thinks the message is meant for her. When Meter Reader knocks, Momma thinks he is Christ come to carry her home. When Bunk knocks, he must first enter as Mr. Robinson. Later, when he knocks on Momma’s bedroom door, he enters as himself. Bunk explains that while there is always a knock at the door, each person must open that door for himself. Bunk convinces Momma to bury the leg, and during their most bizarre service, Meter Reader returns to marry Ivylee, and they bury his “bag of wife” in the coffin along side Bunk’s leg. In their most bizarre yet somehow sweet service, each person comes out of the darkness of their individual life to the light of a new one. Momma learns that “who” she has been waiting for these many years has been there all along if she could have only opened the door.