Beaver's Lament

Like many families, the Cleaver household of today isn’t what it appears to be. Behind the perfect Cleaver family portrait there lay deceit, betrayal, and pain. The superficial family collapses and the children become innocent casualties.

Beaver’s Lament is a sad story. The story is complicated and the four pieces just represent a problem and a symptom. The problem is a family torn apart by adultery and the symptom is a child’s world devastated by divorce.

To put the Cleaver’s story in a contemporary context I chose to place Ward and June into a role reversal situation. Unfortunately June fell into the trappings of monetary power and self-righteousnessonce delegated to her male peers. I believe these trappings to be human nature and not gender oriented. Adultery being a two-way street I could have used Fred Rutherford, her lover, as my example.

Beaver being closest to his mother becomes the child most effected. He holds his feelings inside until one day he snaps and beats a deserving Eddie Haskell with a ball bat. Beaver carries his burden into adulthood where his relationship remains unresolved with his mother.