THE STORY: In Boligee, Alabama, the temperature is rising, hailstones are falling, ghosts are walking among the living, and someone is setting black churches on fire. As one church burns to the ground, the parishioners trapped inside tell tales spanning generations that may unravel the mystery of who is behind the arsons. Blending folklore, magic, and real American history, EVERY TONGUE CONFESS is an epic fantasia that probes the line between redemption and damnation.
“…this is no ordinary piece of theater. Part magic realism, part miracle play, part parable, EVERY TONGUE CONFESS is a sort of…theater-poem exploring sin, loss, and redemption…Gardley’s script combines humor with raw, searing emotion…Not quite a legend and not quite a ghost story, EVERY TONGUE CONFESS fuses powerful elements of storytelling and myth…” —The Washingtonian.
“A Greeks-inspired, August Wilson-channeling, pulpit-inflected gospel blues of a drama…passages positively shimmer…urgently poetic…There aren’t many people with the passion to make plays as big and complex as EVERY TONGUE CONFESS; it lives in the vast and terrifying territories roamed in this era by Wilson and Tony Kushner and Sarah Ruhl and Naomi Wallace. Heady company, that.” —Washington City Paper.
