espresso goes to poland

Lucia Frangione's ESPRESSO was a landmark show for us when it premiered at Pacific Theatre in 2003. Cia has written an account of her (and her play's) recent misadventures in Poland: here's a teaser: read the whole article at the talonbooks website.

...After my meeting with Ewa I head over to the MOMA. In it I discover a tremendous amount of contemporary art that is a specific outcry and response to the oppression of the Catholic church. A lot of anger is slashed across the walls.

My play Espresso is about an Italian Catholic family whose patriarch has a terrible car accident and lies on the brink of life and death. Three women stand vigil over him: his mother, his second wife and his daughter. While these women strain under their immense grief and fear as they wait for the results of his operation, they unravel family secrets, they pray to whatever God they think may exist or not, they contemplate the life lived and the love lost and their place as women in this culture, in this religion, in this family. An erotic Christ figure comes to each of them during their time of grief and woos them with the Song Of Solomon into a place of spiritual and sexual healing, a place of hope, a place of remembrance that this too shall pass and the season of singing shall come.

As I look at this harsh angry necessary display of art, I am so thankful I have written Espresso and can offer the Polish audience an alternative response to religion that is also challenging and yet offers some hope through reclamation.

Oh yes, I have some lofty thoughts about myself this afternoon.

Finally the night has come for me to see my play! Malgorzata Semil has warned me that a few of Amante’s lines have been cut, some of the Song of Solomon. . . .