Shadow Play 1986

Morgan Hanna wakes in the middle of the night, jolted by nightmares about the sudden death of her fiancé Jeremy Crown seven years ago. Struggling to finish a comical play and searching for inspiration, she confides in a therapist who cautions that the trouble she faces is only beginning and that the grief still grips her in powerful, unseen ways. The dreams persist, blending into waking life as if a message from the past refuses to fade.

A heartfelt letter arrives from her would-be mother-in-law inviting her back to the Northwest, the place where the tragedy unfolded. Deciding to confront what she has run from, she moves in with Millie Crown, who herself bears the weight of Jeremy’s death and her own husband’s passing. In that tense, weather-beaten household, Morgan begins to draft a play about loss, and the act of writing gradually transforms the text into something almost supernatural. She starts to see Jeremy Crown’s reflection in windows and mirrors.

But the family’s memory remains stubbornly fixed on facts: Jeremy’s brother, John Crown, insists that Jeremy killed himself, the only one who witnessed the moment when he fell from the lighthouse.

As the script evolves, the five actors who read for the play become a single device: they collectively portray different parts of the same character. At first that character seems to be Morgan herself, but as the pages turn, the role edges toward the voice of Jeremy from beyond the grave, effectively making Jeremy the hidden author of the piece.

The line between art and reality blurs: Morgan’s grip on sanity loosens as the drama on the page mirrors her life. John uses her vulnerability to seduce her, while Jeremy uses John’s body to be close to her again. The combined assault of memory and manipulation drives her to a breaking point, and she resolves to finish the play and enter the same fate she believes Jeremy chose. She hands the completed script to the five actors and sits through the full reading, emotionally moved by the performance. Then she heads toward the lighthouse to end her life, with John pursuing to stop her. In a confrontation that uncovers long-buried truths, he reveals that Jeremy did not kill himself; the death happened by accident when Jeremy tried to intervene as John attempted to take his own life.

With this revelation, Morgan realizes she was not at fault, and a release washes over her. She flees the lighthouse, returning home with a renewed sense of freedom. Waiting in her room is the final, transcendent grace: Jeremy’s last words to her from beyond, urging her to be free and happy.