Tungsten (artery): A Modern Retelling of Persephone

Tungsten (artery) merges bunraku puppetry, shadows, video, sound, and text to create an elliptical rumination on our mortality. It centers on Cora, a contemporary Persephone with an existential dilemma. Asleep on a commuter train entering New York, she can’t remember where she is coming from, and isn’t sure where she is going. The feeling of the journey is the one thing that Cora does remember; it’s ancient, familiar. But a sense of home, of belonging and purpose, is elusive. The play imagines Cora’s search for meaning as she grapples with who she is: her existential exhaustion, the endless nature of her responsibilities, her power, and her sense of relentless loss. As she finds her way to her apartment, her life—lived between worlds—begins to come into focus, as it also begins to unravel. Conceived and created by Janie Geiser (director/film/puppetry), Erik Ehn (playwright), and Shannon Scrofano (installation/space design).