Polaroid Stories – Oct. 7

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By Naomi Iizuka

Directed by Tiffany Johnson

General Admission $20, youth and ISU Students free

Note: Contains adult language and content

A visceral blend of classical mythology and real life stories told by street kids, Naomi Iizuka’s Polaroid Stories journeys into a dangerous world where mythmaking fulfills a fierce need for transcendence, where storytelling has the power to transform a reality in which characters’ lives are continually threatened, devalued and effaced. Inspired in part by Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Iizuka’s Polaroid Stories takes place on an abandoned pier on the outermost edge of a city, a way stop for dreamers, dealers and desperadoes, a no-man’s land where runaways seek camaraderie, refuge and escape. Serpentine routes from the street to the heart characterize the interactions in this spellbinding tale of young people pushed to society’s fringe. Informed, as well, by interviews with young prostitutes and street kids, Polaroid Stories conveys a whirlwind of psychic disturbance, confusion and longing. Like their mythic counterparts, these modem-day mortals are engulfed by needs that burn and consume. Their language mixes poetry and profanity, imbuing the play with lyricism and great theatrical force.