The Liquid Plain

January 31 - February 8, 2015

Jaye Austin Williams, Guest Director
Sheron Wray, Choreographer 

The Liquid Plain (Naomi Wallace, 2012) Commissioned through the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s American Revolutions: the United States History Cycle and winner of the 2012 Horton Foote Prize for Promising New American Play, The Liquid Plain explores sexuality and the violence of the slave trade as we meet two runaway slaves on the docks of an 18th century Rhode Island port. Finding love and a neardrowned man, the mysteries of Adjua and Dembi identities come to light, as do the painful truths about the past and the present, which flow into the next generation. Set in 1791 in Bristol, Rhode Island, the lovers find the body of a drowned white man. In the second act (1837) an educated free black woman pays a visit from England. Discovering far more than she bargained for about her history and the nature of justice, love, and vengeance.

Robert Cohen Theatre Evenings:  Jan. 31, Feb. 5, 6, 7    8:00 pm
Evening: Feb. 4                              7:30 pm
Matinees: Feb. 1*, 7, 8                   2:00 pm
General $15 / Seniors, Groups 10+, UCI Faculty & Staff $14 / UCI Students & Children under 17 $11 *Ticket holders: Please join us for a post-performance TalkBack with the creative team and cast. Commissioned through the Oregon Shakespeare Festival   CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKETS   Wednesday, February 4th, 2015
3:00pm - 6:00pm                                                                                
Location: Humanities Gateway, 1010
Panel Discussion with:
Jaye Austin Williams (Director, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow)
Wind Dell Woods (Dramaturge, Drama Doctoral Program)
Sora Han (Law, Criminology & Society)
Tiffany Willoughby-Herard (African American Studies)
Nicholas Brady (Culture and Theory)
 
Friday, February 6th, 2015
3:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Humanities Gateway, 1010
Panel Discussion with:
Sally Terrefe (English)
Rachel O’Toole (History)
Karen Kim (Gender & Sexuality Studies)
Jaye Austin Williams (Director, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow)
Members of The Liquid Plain cast
 
On January 31st, 2015 , The Liquid Plain, written by Naomi Wallace, and directed by Dr. Jaye Austin Williams, will open at UC Irvine, in the Robert Cohen Theatre. The Liquid Plain explores sexuality and the violence of the slave trade in 18th century New England. Finding love and a near drowned man, the mysteries of Adjua and Dembi identities come to light, as do the painful truths about the past and the present, which flow into the next generation.  Please join us for a symposium in which we discuss and debate the play’s assumptive logic and the ways in which racialized slavery’s dynamics of subjugated sexuality and gratuitous violence endure in the lives and art of Black people today; how the past is ever present. This event is free and open to the public.
 
Event Co-sponsored by,
Department of English
Department of Criminology, Law and Society