ARIADNE'S WAKE by Monica Cross

[Full-Length Absurdist Two-Hander]
In Crete, an abandoned tower full of unfamiliar inventions looms above, a crumbling labyrinth littered with the bodies of the dead lies below, and Eva and Dyo sit on the beach, caught between the two. Last night, Ariadne ran off with a stranger, leaving her two waiting women (and best friends) to wonder what they are supposed to do next. Eva longs for adventure and...
[Full-Length Absurdist Two-Hander]
In Crete, an abandoned tower full of unfamiliar inventions looms above, a crumbling labyrinth littered with the bodies of the dead lies below, and Eva and Dyo sit on the beach, caught between the two. Last night, Ariadne ran off with a stranger, leaving her two waiting women (and best friends) to wonder what they are supposed to do next. Eva longs for adventure and resents being left behind, while Dyo misses her friend and wishes people would stop abandoning her. Ariadne was the glue holding their friendship together and in the wake of her absence that friendship begins to crumble like the architecture that surrounds them.
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ARIADNE'S WAKE

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  • Nora Louise Syran:
    16 Apr. 2023
    “ A lovely story of two handmaidens who are left behind in the "wind and saltwater of [an] isle" to piece together the story of Ariadne's flight with Theseus, the murder of the Minotaur and the disappearance of Icarus and his father. I especially enjoyed Eva's plunder of Daedalus's laboratory and the staging/props possibilities here. A fascinating study of the threads that exist between us--as tenuous and complicated as the threads holding together the very myths which inspired this piece. Brava. ”
  • Jillian Blevins:
    18 Feb. 2023
    “ ARIADNE’S WAKE is unlike any play I’ve read before, employing a concrete-poetry device in which the language of its beach-bound heroines takes the form of the waves which have borne away their mutual friend. This wildly inventive structure gives the play a rhythm of its own, and binds its dialogue to its setting and themes. Having lost their shared sense of purpose, Cross’s abandoned ladies-in-waiting are at odds, even as they each embrace and reject received notions of femininity. ARIADNE’S WAKE explores what divides women, what we owe each other, and the invisible strings connecting us. ”