The Snark, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s poem The Hunting of the Snark, immerses the audience in a landscape of shadows, sound, and multi-cultural characters. In this time of polarized politics, the reimagined Snark dramatizes how individuals create myths about others in order to assuage their fears about living in a world where different lifestyles and ideologies co-exist. The point of view is that Americans, as a diverse set of individuals with polarized opinions and perspectives, must learn to face our fear of one another in order to progress towards a civil society.
The narrative features a group of service workers, lawyer and a banker who are led by an African- American female “captain” into an adventure to kill a beast called The Snark however, the beast they find is inside themselves as they face their greatest fears in a craggy deserted island.
Under development is a new collaboration with Composer Jonathan Girling and Projection Designer William Simpson, both from the United Kingdom, to reimagine the poem as a integrated musical and visual performance work.