PL Krahnke

An Exceptionally Dark Comedy in Twelve Scenes

VISIT https://asylumtheplay.com

LOGLINE

A woman trapped in her own home and a refugee with nowhere else to go long for the same thing: the freedom to live an authentic life in a safe place.

SYNOPSIS

Anne’s husband, David, an immigration lawyer whose narcissism and cruelty have hollowed their marriage, has taken in Rafiq, a young Afghan refugee seeking sanctuary in their cramped New York apartment.

His presence ignites the suspicions of Anne’s fiercely loyal childhood friend Savannah, a meddling, bigoted free spirit whose every visit is a spark tossed onto dry tinder.

As Savannah warns, “Where will this refugee go? What will this refugee do?”, Anne, long exhausted from brokering peace between her warring husband and friend, retreats into the numb refuge of heroin.

She also retreats to Nirvana, the dive bar across the street, where she and Savannah are entertained and challenged by Jamari, the play's warm and funny bartender and wannabe actor. Jamari is Brown and LGBTQ+, navigating his own precarious life in a city that largely ignores him.

The play holds Jamari and Rafiq— one fleeing state violence, one managing quieter, everyday marginalization — in a kind of silent solidarity.

Caught between longing for family, nurture, and safety, Anne discovers an unexpected gentleness in Rafiq, the mysterious boy who sleeps on her sofa and prays softly in her living room, offering the first flicker of solace she has felt in years.

When the mysterious Jason arrives, his easy multilingualism and curiosity offers Anne a glimmer of hope, suggesting that borders — national, cultural, personal — are navigable when met with openness.

Finally, David and Savannah’s escalating hostilities erupt into violence.

When Anne sees the aftermath, she is torn between helping them live -- or letting them die. When she makes her decision, the question turns back on her:

Where will she go? What will she do?

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Throughout the development of this play, in readings and workshops, the following individuals have played important roles in getting it right:

Humaira Ghilzai, Afghan Cultural Consultant (The Kite Runner, Broadway)
Emilio Williams, Playwright, Essayist, Educator, Chicago/Paris (!Bernarda!, Steppenwolf 1700 Theatre, Chicago)
Will Dunne, Instructor, Scene Work, Chicago Dramatist
Kate Hendrickson, Director, Trap Door Theatre
Carson Grace Becker, Dramaturgy
Audrey Sheffield, Director, (Stranger Things, London, UK)
Telling Humans Playwright Studio
Goddard College, Vermont

LOGLINE

When her husband vanishes and the money runs out, an “othered” woman navigates a treacherous New York art world only to find herself the most valuable — and most vulnerable — thing in the room.

SYNOPSIS

On a sweltering New York morning, Chante´ Reynold — elegant, ambitious, and perpetually watched — moves through her carefully constructed world with the precision of an “othered” woman, one who understands that an image crafted in the trappings of White success is a means of survival.

Her husband George, a White artist whose star has burned out as quickly as it rose, is nowhere to be found. The bills are mounting. The ledgers reflect a trend she can't believe.

Desperate but composed, Cantara arranges a meeting with Bemelman, a powerful Belgian art collector, to negotiate the sale of one of George's paintings.

What she doesn't yet know is that George has already made his own arrangement, one that trades her safety for his escape.
What unfolds over the course of a single day is a ruthless unmasking.

Cantara's household, which includes her assistants Jeff and Greg and her devoted houseman Mikel, orbit hers with varying degrees of loyalty, contempt, and desire.

Her nephew Jackson, freshly released from prison, arrives like a ghost from the life she fled, carrying stolen artifacts and hard questions about who she really is.

By nightfall, every structure Chante´ has built — her marriage, her social standing, her carefully curated identity — has been systematically dismantled by the very world she fought to enter.

HUMID is a examination of objectification, betrayal, and the brutal mechanics of social hierarchy.

It asks who gets to assign value to art, to people, to ambition, and who pays the price when those assignments are revoked.

At its heart, it is the story of a brilliant woman destroyed not by her failures, but by her determination to survive in proximity to power.

DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT
Martine Kei-Green Rogers, Dramaturgy; Dean, Department of Theatre, DePaul University
Jack Phillips Moore, Dramaturgy; Associate Director of New Work Development, Public Theatre, NYC
Emilio Williams, Playwright, Essayist, Educator, Chicago/Paris
Paul Selig, Instructor, Goddard College; Playwright, Yale
Neil Landau, Instructor, Goddard College; Screenwriter, UCLA, USC, Los Angeles
Gavin McAlinden, Director, London UK
Telling Humans Playwright Studio; Chicago Dramatists Master Class
Readings: NYC, London UK, New Jersey

Robbi is a short order cook in a crummy, haunted West Virginia diner. Today's her day to escape this bullshit town. But the ghosts have a different plan.