The Rope Dancers

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5 m, 4 f/ Int. This poetic drama starred Art Carney and Siobhan McKenna in the New York premiere. The story reveals the struggles of an Irish American couple at the turn of the century whose daughter has been born with six fingers on her left hand and who later becomes the victim of what appears to be St. Vitus' Dance. Margaret Hyland is convinced that the child's suffering is punishment from God, penance for James' alcoholism. Believing that the guilt is partially her own, she has become embittered, resentful and distant. Resolved in tragedy, the torments, repressions and denials of human beings caught in a inevitable maelstrom they can neither understand nor resist.