Eva MeiLing Pollitt

A woman and her narrator confront the woman's anxiety, depression, and loneliness.

Inspired by a combination of documentaries about modern-day prostitution, paintings by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and bizarre feverous dreams, Éléphant plunges us into the world of CLÉRÈSE; a thirteen year-old who has grown up with an absent mother and a myth of a father in a late 19th century Paris brothel – and who has recently fallen pregnant with what CLÉRÈSE believes to be the fetus of a baby elephant.
Act One takes us through the events leading up to CLÉRÈSE’s pregnancy: her first period, her first sexual encounter, the first time she hears her Father’s voice, and her first dream prophecy of the baby animal to be.
Act Two begins five months later with a CLÉRÈSE who is large enough to be nine months pregnant and who does not know the name or the whereabouts of the young man whom she believes is the father. Rumors circulate that CLÉRÈSE was raped by her father, CLÉRÈSE’s mother’s depression worsens, and pressure mounts for CLÉRÈSE to have her baby aborted and start working as a prostitute. Despite all of this, CLÉRÈSE clings to her dreams and the promise of a family with her baby elephant to be – until a disastrous encounter with the boy she believes is the father of her child and a bloody and feverous premature birth force her to face a new reality.
Recovering from the birth, oscillating between dreams and actuality, CLÉRÈSE says goodbye to her lover and to her baby, and chooses to wake up. When she does, her mother is by her side, jolted by the recent events and ready to take her daughter out of the brothel.
Éléphant addresses loneliness, trauma, and how we survive through them, as the brutal journey of CLÉRÈSE’s life is made bearable through the honey-drenched dream of an elephant.

L’Âme, a newborn creature on a stormy blue planet is introduced to relics from another blue planet. As she listens to sound recordings, explores objects, and finds herself communicating with the voice of a live person, she makes an earth-rumbling discovery that leads to the ultimate impossible connection with a loved one.

Three Women. Three Wars. One Stage. Guernica is a multi-lingual 90-minute movement that infuses the circus, Brechtian Epic theatre, and documentary theatre to explore themes of war and freedom.

The play begins with Isra from contemporary Syria, Sonya from WWII Russia, and Miss from the Civil War South living in their isolated worlds while simultaneously sharing the stage. Their scenes play parallel to one another as the threat of war edges in on their home territory and the call to fight for freedom grows stronger. With the first siege by the enemy, the borders between the worlds collapse, and 2011 Syria, 1941 Stalingrad, and 1861 Georgia are merged into one place: The Warzone during Wartime. As the characters interact and navigate the chaotic terribleness of war together, they must ask themselves: What must be destroyed to find renewal? Do we have to compromise for hope?

Two characters, Clown and Clownessa, act as orchestrators and overseers, carrying the space and the characters into the Warzone through theatrical and imaginative means. Initially inspired by Picasso’s masterwork, Guernica illustrates the universal elements of war while still recognizing individual journeys and perspectives that take place within the big picture.