Event

The Scarlet Lady

presented by Michelle Storm
Elisabeth, a dreamy novice actress, auditions for an unfinished play by tormented stage auteur Jay Johnson. In the midst of their late night rehearsals, Melanie Moen, a free spirited playwright, appears by chance and reunites with Jay, thirteen years after an ill-fated theater affair. Accompanied by tornado sirens and a bottle of plum brandy, vivid, wildly divergent stories of their shared past are relived. Or, do the retellings only fulfill a more current yearning?

From wild brawls in a local Irish pub, to a midnight tarot card reading on an empty stage, Jay and Melanie's youthful ardor is recreated by Elisabeth and her narcoleptic waiter-boyfriend named Adam. Passion unfolds under the watchful presence of the Scarlet Lady, who wanders the catwalk above. Illusion is heightened in this highly stylized piece. What is real? What is fantasy? With each re-imagining, they are all led deeper into the full truth of their past and inexorably towards their future.