27 MOTHS by Tracy Carns

In the beginning was Coca-Cola. Then Robert Oppenheimer begat The Gadget, which begat Godzilla, which begat a low-flying, one-trillion megaton Hello Kitty filled with radioactive rainbow sprinkles and glowing plutonium moths...

A doomsday device has passed over, and a new messiah has emerged—a charismatic teenager named Justine. While Justine dazzles the masses, conjuring visions of desert...
In the beginning was Coca-Cola. Then Robert Oppenheimer begat The Gadget, which begat Godzilla, which begat a low-flying, one-trillion megaton Hello Kitty filled with radioactive rainbow sprinkles and glowing plutonium moths...

A doomsday device has passed over, and a new messiah has emerged—a charismatic teenager named Justine. While Justine dazzles the masses, conjuring visions of desert journeys, her brother Berg—sheltering with his friend Lola in an abandoned motel—is not persuaded. When survival requires a leap of faith, what does a messiah have to do to convince those closest to her that she’s The Real Thing? 27 MOTHS is an atomic dream play that explores what it takes to reawaken belief when the world is burning.
  • Recommend
  • Download
  • Save to Reading List

27 MOTHS

Recommended by

  • Jordan Noble:
    29 Sep. 2022
    “ This play is an absolute nightmare. I mean that in the best way! As I read, I feel like I experienced it in the same way as a dream — constantly jumping around in time, shifting symbols, mysterious conflations, and ultimately a rhetorical upshot that will linger for a long time because it unsettled me so. I went looking in NPX for something daring and different and found it here. It’s also a wonderful gift to designers and maybe even choreographers, because the stylistic offers in the dialogue are fantastic. ”
  • Kaeli Meno:
    26 Jun. 2022
    “ I was able to see a reading of this at the 2022 Valdez Theatre Conference. 27 Moths is able to create it's own lore and world in a rather quick amount of time. It demands that you be an active audience member and draw some conclusions for yourself. It is unapologetically it's own world and gives you a lot to consider when the play draws to a close. ”
  • Emily McClain:
    21 Jun. 2022
    “ One of the highlights of my time at Valdez Theatre Conference was working on this piece with the amazingly creative playwright Tracy Carns. 27 Moths is challenging in all the best ways: the script dives into thorny questions of faith and doubt, exploring desolation, destruction, and rebirth. The vivid imagery, rich descriptive language, and unapologetic weirdness of this play sticks with you long after the performance concludes. Curl up with a Coca-cola and a frozen Snickers bar and enjoy! ”