As climate change ravaged the Earth, those with money and power escaped into space, leaving behind the less fortunate to try and survive in the wreckage. Half a century later, a small group of said survivors stumble across a treasure trove left by one of those rich escapees, guarded by a cyborg tasked with keeping people like them out. When their first attempt to break in results in an injury that’s quickly becoming lethal, the group must figure out how to defeat the guard—or find a way to convince them to change sides.
Driven by a conviction that the crisis of accelerating climate change represents a core challenge and responsibility of humanity at this time, and a belief that art is a great provocateur of public dialogue and a spur to action, Flat Earth Theatre has partnered with the Museum of Science to commission four new plays about the human impact of climate change. Over the course of Flat Earth Theatre’s 2017–2018 season, premier Boston playwrights MJ Halberstadt (The Launch Prize, That Time the House Burned Down), Kevin Mullins (A Southern Victory, Citizens of the Empire: a Space Opera), Nina Louise Morrison (Born Naked, Google Doll), and Francisca Da Silveira (Heritage Hill Naturals) have worked with dramaturgs, directors, and scientists to develop gripping stories that bring home the personal costs and global reverberations of our current ecological crisis, in settings as varied as Antarctica, the American southwest, islands off the coast of Africa, and the Svalbard Global Seed Bank.
It's business as usual in the afterlife until an unexpected death upends the worlds of angels, demons, and many exalted beings in between. Particularly affected is Lucifer M. Star, whose journey through the stages of grief for a friend he had thought immortal ignites a pursuit for the truth behind what really happened, even if it means literally bringing hell up to heaven. Filled with allusions to far-ranging religious lore, He Is Dead concludes Flat Earth member Kevin Kordis's "Blood Berry Trilogy" (Grandma's House, The Man from Willow's Brook) by adding a modern twist to the Good Book.
Much like countless children across the globe, Elikia and Joseph have been torn from their homes and families, pressed into service in a brutal civil war. This is the child soldiers’ testimonial: the story of an unlikely flight towards freedom where welcome remains uncertain.
In a community where the men have been disappeared by a fascist government not unlike the playwright's native Chile, an unidentifiable corpse turns up in the river. The tormented women who remain — grandmothers, mothers, wives — rise up against their oppressors to demand their loved ones returned, dead or alive, at the risk of their own safety.
Newly adapted by Flat Earth's A. Lehrmitt, Lovecraft's Unnamable Tales presents radio play variations of four of Lovecraft's short stories that exemplify the horror of something unknown. Set in the legendary city of Arkham and focusing on the classic Lovecraftian short story The Unnamable, the story is that of two intellectuals defining the undefinable. The two revisit the tales Hypnos, exploring a fantastic world that exists solely in our dreams; From Beyond, delving into an extrasensory dimension full of unheard-of monsters; and The Statement of Randolph Carter, seeking the unexplainable in the dark of night. That which we cannot see can harm us, and that which we do not understand could destroy all of reality.
Eight hundred years in the future in a galaxy that looks vaguely familiar, a revolutionary, a robot union organizer, and the madam of a high-class space brothel are on the run from the law. Citizens of the Empire: A Space Opera will be performed in a staged reading at the Democracy Center as the December installment of Interim Writers's “Have You Read?” series, presented in partnership with Flat Earth Theatre.
As he lies in a Latin American city, dying of consumption, Rudolph Schnabelt confesses his involvement in the most notorious act in labor history, the bombing in Haymarket square. We hear about his coming to America, immigrant life in the slums of New York and Chicago, his involvement in the struggle for the eight-hour day, his conversion to anarchism, and the road that led him to throw the bomb that killed eight policemen, and send five of his comrades to their deaths. Dealing with issues that range from immigrant and workers rights, to anarchism and the question of militancy, The Bomb, takes a look at our own history and the origins of may day.
Based on the novel by H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds radio drama shocked the world when it first aired on October 30th, 1938. Many who tuned in late to Orson Welles's historic broadcast mistook it for an actual news bulletin, believing that Earth was indeed under attack by Martian invaders. Featuring performers from the greater Boston area, as well as live foley effects artists, the show will recreate the experience of a live radio drama in the making.
The War of The Worlds, a chilling tale of alien invaders from Mars, caused mass panic during its original broadcast when latecomers to the program believed it to be an actual news bulletin. Flat Earth will be presenting the radio play in its entirety.
