Regal but weary, Nora Neily is deeply resentful about being abandoned by her frustrated, guilt-ridden son, Kenny. When he drops Nora off, she’s sure her life is pretty much done. Then, her spunky former acquaintance Edna Buchanan wheels in and reminds her that she’s still got a heck of a lot of living to do.
Edna has managed to alienate everyone at Shady Rest Retirement Home. Ornery as hell, she doesn’t suffer any of the fools she thinks she’s surrounded by, and claims she's had an affair with everyone’s husband. Edna conscripts initially timid Nora into her daily antics, including how to get assigned to the hunky male nurse when it’s bath time and how to liven up carpet bowling with a little bookie action. As Edna’s health struggles become more prominent, it becomes clear that her schemes to break out of Shady Rest are as much about running from her rapidly progressive dementia as they are about escaping the banality of nursing home life. And when Edna’s diminished health removes her to the secure memory care wing, Nora plots one last escapade to give her friend back what Edna had shown her - how to get back on the elephant.
At once bittersweet and side-splittingly funny, Dancing on the Elephant is at its heart a story of a friendship forged in the shared determination to age with dignity and humour.