THE STORY: Meet Demeter, an exquisite statue of the Greek goddess, as she’s being created during the Italian Renaissance. Those who admire her see only stone and fortitude, but her thoughts and desires are all too real; she pines for her lost daughter’s return and for the love of her sculptor, Giuseppe. Giuseppe, however, is too busy lusting after the city’s most popular artist’s model to notice Demeter’s pain. Fast forward five hundred years: Demeter stands in a present-day American city park. She has become a symbol of hope amidst illicit activity and a target for more than just pigeon droppings. Witness to human foibles both hilarious and horrible, Demeter is desperate for someone—anyone—to hear her thoughts. And when her life seems bleakest, redemption comes in the unlikeliest of forms.
“[An] imaginative, funny and deeply serious allegorical play about eternal yearning…the work begins with a playful idea that turns into something else entirely as Haidle explores the role of art as a refuge—and witness—in a chaotic, cruel and mortal world.” —Variety.
“[Haidle is] formidably talented, with a sort of freewheeling intuitive daring…he has a firm command of the theatrical idiom to back up his ambition for originality.” —The New Yorker.
