A playful duet between romantic partners that offers a comedic take on a sinister secret.
A nighttime confrontation between a mother and son. The son accuses her of having an affair with his uncle, and killing his father. He’s found a doctor in Chinatown who will be able to prove his father was poisoned. The mother claims she did it to end his pain.
A dying father and his son drink their last bowl of water. They need oil for the machines that will keep them alive and purify their water. A truck rolls past with a huge barrel of oil in the back. The son flags it down, only to discover the person driving the truck is a monstrous creature from the nation they’re at war with.
A blind dancer and the shadow of her former sight share a final dance.
Each of two brother bulls attempts to convince the other to enter the barn. Neither wants to go, knowing their lives are at stake. The two flatter, dare, and challenge one another, until a race finally settles it: first one to the barn wins. Sort of.
An entire relationship in microcosm, from first meeting to last sunset together. This piece uses a couple’s dancing together as a metaphor for their time passing.
It's lunchtime in the schoolyard.
Three unhappy kids dream of flying away on a kite.
Elijah and Keisha tell Miriam about Billy the bully. Billy bullies Elijah, then Miriam stands up to Billy.
Miriam becomes a bully and destroys Elijah's kite.
The kids all make up and fly Elijah's restored kite.
Elvet is struck with grief over the death of his newborn child, not yet named.
Robert helps Charlie, who is sick, check his stool and be calm in the face of death.
The Child is taught a lesson. She attempted to speak her truth, but was met with discipline.
An interrogator turns his lurid eyes on an imprisoned female activist. Purposefully misunderstanding her movements as seduction, he convinces himself of something horrid.
Lucifer taunts the Child in a cell. She doesn't understand what she's done wrong.
A cleric prepares for confessional. Someone enters the booth. The cleric realizes it’s a man with whom he shared a mutual attraction. The man has recently finished gay conversion therapy and wishes to resume some kind of a relationship.
The Child is bored. She reads several books in an effort to learn all the things she shouldn’t do, say, feel, or see. Lucifer simply asks her why, attempting to get her attention on him instead of books. She finds a name, Iblis, and taunts him.
A book pleads with the audience to be read. A rhythmic chorus rises. A tribute to the banned, the burned, and the hidden.
As Lucifer tries again to get the Child to go with him, the Child finds out who Lucifer is in one of the books of the cell.
The Child is allowed out of her cage, with a warning she can have anyting she wants except for one thing. She asks what it might be, and in a Kafka-esque reply they say, “you know.”
The Child is led back to the book cage, and performers take their places.
Lucifer jangles an entrancing key in front of the Child and a young boy. This key promises to open the gates of heaven, but the boy has his own doubts about that. Nevertheless, he zips up his vest...
The Child questions Lucifer’s role as tempter, while he tempts with growing intensity. He chastises the Child for bowing to authority. She erupts in anger, pushing the books aside and leaving the cage.
A distraught woman is trying to report her sexual assault to a policeman. She admits she’s had some alcohol. Instead of pursuing justice, the policeman arrests her for illegal possession of alcohol. The Child witnesses all of it.
Lucifer is enraged at the unfairness put upon him. The Child sees, and has an idea. Perhaps the system should be broken. When Lucifer realizes the Child has seen his truth, he tries to hide his emotions.
A watcher looks over a group of faithful. His irritation turns to hatred as he accuses them of subversion. He claims to have proof hidden in some papers, but the Child has destroyed them. The Child proclaims “I know what to do,” and the tension between authority and people escalates. The Child begins taking pages and notes from all the surrou...
The Child creates her own book from pages of other books. She hands out her new rules to the audience.
Lucifer rebuilds the cage, then tries to convince the audience to join him in self-exile.
First meeting of an adult son and his birth mother.
A couple fights as a woman leaves to pursue her dream.
At 4 a.m., a composer stands looking out the window, his tools nearby. Across town, a librettist is doing the same. Both are just slightly panicking about their latest work: an opera about a dog named Harley.
Filled with regret over his life, Manli sings of an abandoned love.
Lai Gwan compares her love for Nichol with the pull of the cool mountain water.
Lai Gwan compares her love for Nichol with the pull of the cool mountain water.
Lai Gwan compares her love for Nichol with the pull of the cool mountain water.
Lai Gwan compares her love for Nichol with the pull of the cool mountain water.
Before dying, Ama tells Lai Gwan of her father, gives her a wedding dress, and urges her to go to North America to find her father - but always remember Chinese traditions.
Aboard a ship taking Chinese workers to British Columbia - they are hungry & thirsty. Ah Lum starts a fight with Lai Gwan, who is disguised as a young man, but they stop as the coast comes into view.
In Ottawa, Canadian politicians and moguls toast the launch of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The Railway Foreman James Nichol encourages the workers until the impenetrable Rocky Mountains block their way. The Bookman comes to supply the cheap Chinese labour that will allow Nichol to conquer “The Great Divide.”
The Chinese workers are led in and a disguised Lai Gwan challenges Manli the Bookman’s authority. He seeks revenge by assigning Lai Gwan to the most dangerous work in the camp: planting dynamite on the mountain face while suspended in a basket.
While she is bathing in a stream, Nichol disovers Lai Gwan is a woman - she asks for his help to find her father and to keep her secret. Manli interrupts them before Nichol decides what to do.
The Chinese workers decide to strike, led by Lai Gwan, after another death with no proper funeral. The strike is put down and Nichol stops Lai Gwan from being hung by Manli. She discovers Manli is her father.
Lai Gwan dreams of the conflicting desires of her mother, father, Nichol and herself.
As Manli and Lai Gwan argue about their situation, Lai Gwan tells of Ama's death, which crushes Manli. He decides to set the next explosive charge himself. Nichol and Lai Gwan recognise their love and follow Manli into the tunnel.
In the explosion rubble, Lai Gwan and Nichol declare their love depsite Ama's warnings. Nichol dies as the workers rescue Lai Gwan and Manli, who declares his renewed love for his daughter.
Workers watch the train come to Eagle Pass - while the whites are happy, the Chinese realize there is no more work for them.
Whites celebrate the finishing of the railway and officially dismiss the Chinese, who blame Manli for abandoning them.
Manli and Lai Gwan decided to make a life together in Canada. As they collect and bury the bones of Chinese workers they remember all the dead, including Ama and Nichol.
A child walks on a beach, in search of their parents.
Dahlia's father encourages her to seduce Jason, and promises her she can have anything she wants.
On the eve of their departure, M'dea and Chase play a gruesome game imagining ways to kill Dahlia the demoness.
Jason, M'dea, and the soldiers return from war to a celebratory crowd. Some do not trust the new foreigner, M'dea.
At a party, the Corporal mocks Jason for needing M'dea to help him win and for bringing her home.
M'dea and Jason commit to loving each other and helping each other recover from the war and memories that haunt them.
Jason and M'dea are expecting a baby. Citizens gossip about the couple.
At the President's office, Jason and the President discuss family, how to be a good father, and a possible future for Jason in politics.
A family outing to the beach turns into a photo op for the paparazzi.
In a dream state, M'dea recalls all she has done to survive.
The President invites Jason to be his running mate, and begins to remake him. This process sidelines M'dea and Chase. Dahlia and Jason are attracted to one other.