The piece opens in the middle of a reverse custody battle, with each party demanding the other take their son, Simon.  Carla believes her son will grow up dysfunctional without a father, and Peter claims he’ll do nothing but cry for her.  Interspersed with their fighting is the occasional instruction to Simon, indicating he’s in the room, a witn...

A woman and her grown son are leaving their home. It’s time for bed, but the boy insists they play his favourite game one last time. Begrudgingly, the mother agrees. They make up ways of killing an unnamed woman.

When the game is over, the boy asks what would happen if they killed the woman “for real,” if it would make his father love them ag...

Chloe and Eddie are in the throes of love when they’re interrupted by Matt, Chloe’s athlete ex-husband. Matt asks where their daughter Ava is, and criticizes Chloe for abandoning Ava for some man.

Adapted from and further inspired by the short story Mermaid in the Jar by Sheila Heti, this triptych of short chamber operas (Mermaid in the Jar, Prairie Dogs, and Fine and Dandy) takes place entirely within an eleven-year-old girl’s bedroom as she overhears her parents’ volatile conversations. Over the course of a few days, a mermaid she recei...