Immortality and family ties

Lynn Redgrave performs the American premiere of her bittersweet one-woman drama, “Nightingale,” a contemplation on immortality and those whose lives leave little mark, based on her maternal grandmother, Beatrice Kempson, a lesser-known member of the Redgrave theatrical dynasty. Redgrave, moved to write the play after finding that weather had erased the words on her grandmother’s gravestone, has now written a trilogy of autobiographical plays. “Nightingale” joins “The Mandrake Root,” inspired by her mother, actress Rachel Kempson, and “Shakespeare for My Father,” about her relationship with her father, Michael Redgrave.

“Nightingale,” Mark Taper Forum, 135 N. Grand Ave., L.A. Opens 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Runs 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 7:30 p.m. Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday; ends Nov. 19. $42 to $55. (213) 628-2772; www.CenterTheatreGroup.org