Jodie and Emma don’t want to live in the city any more, with dreams of a new life, a will to work hard, and a generous grant, they set out into a desertified landscape. They nurture their garden in a dying world, but between a scorching climate and a very hungry neighbor, farming provides more challenges than anticipated. The couple struggles to plant their own roots and comes to realize growing on dead land may be a bigger challenge than expected. Will a dying earth leave them deserted? 

Sisters: Some Theatrical Rituals About the Nunnery, by Chicago native Susan Lersch, is an autobiographical play about a young woman in the 1960s, reconciling with her sexuality within the confines of a convent. Sarah is determined to join the convent despite protests from her boyfriend and some of the more traditional sisters in the order. The further she gets into her journey and the more people she meets and learns from, the more crossroads she comes to. She is tempted by the “particular friendships” she forms with two of the sisters, and is torn between what feels good and what she knows is right. After all, she is in love with Jesus Christ.

This play deals with themes of LGBTQ+ identity, sex, submission and sisterhood, and how all these things intersect with the Catholic Church. 

This show is 18+

The Metal Shop Performance Lab and JunkHeart present:

ANATOMY OF A SUICIDE
​by Alice Birch
​directed by Alex Mallory

www.themetalshop.org/junkheart for more information

Anatomy of a Suicide follows three generations of women: mother, daughter and granddaughter, whose individual stories are told simultaneously. For each, the pain and chaos of the women who came before them force them to question whether they will be able to escape this deeply rooted legacy and instead make their own. Alice Birch’s Susan Smith Blackburn Prize-winning play is an intimate exploration of inter-generational trauma, told across three interlinking narratives.

This production is independently funded by the producers and generous individual donors. All donations go directly to paying artists. If you would like to support our work, click here to make a tax-deductible donation to the production through The Metal Shop’s fiscal sponsor, Fractured Atlas.