Anon, a young refugee from a faraway land, travels the country, searching for some semblance of home, and the mother from whom he was separated long ago. Nemasani, a bereaved mother, hope gone, sews her son’s shroud: unraveling at night, and sewing again during the day, putting off a marriage to the sleazy sweatshop boss she detests by refusing to finish her sacred sewing project. Between the two lies the vast and terrifying United States of America, filled with murderous one-eyed butchers, deceptively alluring dive bars, drugged-out Shadows dreaming their lives away, and the constant threat of the authorities -- but also, unexpected friendship, unlooked-for serendipity, and supernatural aid. Watched over by the goddess Naja, supported by a tragic and poetic Chorus of Refugees, Anon must keep his wits about him, trust in his memory, and tell his story, before he can find his mother. Naomi Iizuka’s brutal and beautiful play Anon(ymous), a powerful retelling of Homer’s epic Odyssey, explores ancient themes of identity, coming-of-age, and the shifting nature of home, in the face of displacement. This visually and verbally stunning script is the perfect vehicle for a large cast of multi-generational, diverse performers.
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contains monologues
contains scenes.
2006, Childrens Theatre Company, Minneapolis
2007
Playscripts
978-1-62384-009-9
Based on Homer's epic, The Odyssey (ancient Greece). Strong play for post-secondary training program. Flexible casting: 11-35 actors possible: 6-20 women 5-15 men
Based on Homer's epic, The Odyssey (ancient Greece). Strong play for post-secondary training program. Flexible casting: 11-35 actors possible: 6-20 women 5-15 men
Written in 1971, Madmen and Specialists is one of Soyinka's most excoriating portrayals of abusers and abused in the new Nigeria ushered in by Biafra and the civil war of 1967-70. Set in the "surgery" of a doctor, the play is populated by mendicants and the "insane," all fodder for "experimentation" by a shape-shifting doctor whose experiments may be more sinister than they at first appear.
Realistic
Nora is the perfect wife and mother. She is dutiful, beautiful and everything is always in its right place. But when a secret from her past comes back to haunt her, her life rapidly unravels. Over the course of three days, Nora must fight to protect herself and her family or risk losing everything. Henrik Ibsen's brutal portrayal of womanhood caused outrage when it was first performed in 1879. This bold new version by Stef Smith reframes the drama in three different time periods. The fight for women's suffrage, the Swinging Sixties and the modern day intertwine in this urgent, poetic play that asks how far have we really come in the past hundred years?
