City Without Altar
This event is in the past
Multiple dates through May 28, 2022, various times
Milagro Theatre
Buckman (Portland)
This is an in-person event
$20 - $27
The following description comes from the event organizer.
In City Without Altar, the audience finds themselves between the present and the 1930’s on the Haitian-Dominican border, in a time and place where ‘where are you from?’ is a question of life or death. This play follows a Haitian family in their struggle to hold onto their sense of home, culture, and body as the looming shadow of genocide theatens to strip them of everything.
Told entirely in verse, this piece of theatre takes the form of a poetic ritual, transforming the stage itself into an altar where the spirits of the Parsley Massacre victims can once again have a voice. Featuring a diverse and colorful collection of characters—from the wise, healer grandma Madame Telsaint, to the wounded Maria, to the embodiment of violence simply named Machete—the cast of City Without Altar guides the audience through a reflection of pain and grief and leads them to a resolution where closure, joy, and moving on is finally possible.