Gossamer

Eighteen-year-old Arachne is an aspiring artist and activist with a firm conviction that art can change the world. While spending a gap year working on her portfolio and living with her aunt Penelope, a professor of art history, Arachne unwittingly opens a portal to an ancient, mythological world, through which burst two sisters, Procne and Philomela, pursued by a mysterious, evil force. The four women, who seemingly have little in common, learn to connect and communicate with one another through artistic collaboration. Together, they weave a tapestry that helps to heal their wounds, but also reveals their secrets.

Gossamer is a play with movement that explores how collaborative art-making can be a healing process, while also questioning the pressure that artists (especially female-identifying artists) feel to use their personal trauma to create art. The play weaves together naturalistic dialogue with poetic language and heightened movement to blur the lines between the ancient and the modern, and to show how women have used textile arts throughout history to subvert and resist the patriarchal systems that surround them.

Cast & Crew
Playwright: Rebecca Brudner
Creative Producers: Beardance Theatre Company