The Collision / The Martyrdom Tickets

Two plays created in response to Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim’s DULCITIUS

THE COLLISION AND WHAT CAME AFTER, OR, GUNCH! By Nadja Leonhard-Hooper Directed by Lily Riopelle & THE MARTYRDOM New text by Amanda Keating Translation by Lizzie Fox Directed by Molly Clifford

With Lizzie Fox, Halima Henderson, Layla Khoshnoudi, and Emma Ramos

In THE COLLISION, Sisters Anise, Gudrun, and Gunch spend their days praying, washing clothes, and copying the Bible. When a mysterious object falls from the sky–bringing death, destruction, and...unsettling changes in one of the sisters–they are forced to question: was this God’s work? Or the Devil’s? And what happens when you can't tell the difference between a pervert and a prophet?

THE MARTYRDOM asks: how do you solve a problem like Hrotsvitha? More specifically, how do we solve her 10th century comedy about three Christian virgins who triumph over the Devil by accepting their violent, corporeal deaths as a shortcut to eternal happiness with their Celestial Bridegroom? This raucous adaptation is a road trip through the last millennium with the people (and puppets) who have asked themselves this same question - in hopes that someone else might have the answer.

Together, these plays explore how we make meaning from the stories we inherit and how to make new meanings when old stories fail us.