The story follows the strained, sexual relationship between Li'l Bit and her aunt's husband, Uncle Peck, from her pre-adolescence through her teenage years into college and beyond.
The play tells the story of a woman nicknamed Li'l Bit as she comes to terms with her sexually abusive relationship with her Uncle Peck throughout her adolescence.
The script is a memory play told largely out of chronological order, with the first scene taking place in 1969 in a parking lot in rural Maryland.
Li'l Bit mentions she is graduating high school and going to a "fancy college" in the fall, while Uncle Peck continues to admire her body.
This includes her alcoholic mother, the "titless wonder", her misogynistic grandfather "Big Papa", her submissive grandmother, and her young Cousin BB (Blue Balls).
Peck slyly orders oysters and martinis for Li'l Bit to consume, while the girl's mother gives less than stellar advice on drinking alcohol.
In a monologue, Uncle Peck gives the unseen Cousin BB a fishing lesson, where it is strongly implied that he uses this as a cover to molest the boy the same way he used driving to abuse Li'l Bit.
Mother tries to be helpful in explaining topics such as orgasms and consent, while Grandmother wails that Li'l Bit is too young to know about sex and uses scare tactics to keep her from doing it until she is married.
The adult Li'l Bit breaks the memory to explain that she went on to have a one-night stand with a high school senior when she was twenty-seven, experiencing the allure of young flesh that her uncle once felt.
The next scene is a series of vignettes on Li'l Bit's school days in 1966, where she faced ridicule and sexual harassment from the other students on account of her large breasts.
Li'l Bit reveals that the years of trauma from Peck have finally caught up with her, leading to her not focusing in school and failing her courses.
Li'l Bit returns to the present to explain what became of Peck after she left: He turned to alcohol after years of sobriety, leading to the loss of his job, his marriage, and his driver's license.
The final scene has Li'l Bit alone in her car, and as she adjusts her rear view mirror, she notices Uncle Peck in the back.
"[10] This critically acclaimed production was directed by Terry Schreiber and received 10 New York Innovative Theatre (NYIT) Award nominations.
[11] L.A. Theatre Works produced an audio performance of the play, starring Glenne Headly, Randall Arney, Joy Gregory, Paul Mercier, and Rondi Reed.
The work was directed by Kate Whoriskey and starred Norbert Leo Butz as Uncle Peck and Elizabeth Reaser as Li'l Bit.
[15] In 2015, the play received its first professional London revival at Southwark Playhouse, starring Olivia Poulet as Li'l Bit and William Ellis as Peck, directed by Jack Sain, produced by D.E.M.
[16] In June 2019 the play was performed in Singapore by Wag the Dog Theatre Ltd., with Victoria Mintey as L'il Bit and Sean Worrall as Uncle Peck.
[19] Jill Dolan, in her review in Theatre Journal, wrote of the original 1997 Off-Broadway production: "Vogel’s choice to remember Li’l Bit and Peck’s relationship nonchronologically illustrates its complexity, and allows the playwright to build sympathy for a man who might otherwise be despised and dismissed as a child molester....Vogel builds the relationship in scenes sculpted with spare efficiency by Brokaw that crystallize moments of trust, disappointment, longing, and desire.
"[7] Ben Brantley, in his The New York Times review of the original 1997 production, wrote: "The scrambled chronology, which suggests the ways memories attack by stealth and out of sequence, makes it harder for the audience to form conventional judgments.
Ms. Vogel is too intelligent to present this simply as a study in victim versus villain or to fail to acknowledge that what's happening is, in some appalling way, a real love story.