Writer/Performer: Jessica Creane
Director: Joseph Ahmed
Sound Design: Ashlin Aronin
Tea consultation and co-curation: Sebastian Beckwith
As a guest of this intimate tea party, you will be served tea of exceptional quality, play entirely civilized parlor games, and when the end comes, no need to panic, you won’t be alone.
You and your fellow guests are attendees at a tea party at the end of the world, partaking in the rituals and obligations of being a guest in someone else’s, for lack of a better word, home. Your host for this tea party is new to the gig, but what she lacks in grace, she makes up for in burning human intensity and unexpected abilities.
TEA PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD is inspired by the creator’s time in the Arctic Circle as an artist-in-residence and her low-key obsession with the ritual comforts and complexity of loose-leaf tea. TEA PARTY… explores how we connect to one another in times of uncertainty and fear; celebrating the splendor of being alive in a beautiful and disappearing world, while honoring the unfathomable cost it exacts on our ability to connect and find purpose.
This darkly humorous, cutting and cozy exploration of the apocalypse wonders alongside the audience if remaining playful in dire circumstances is the key not only to surviving, but thriving.
* Tea service is included in the ticket price.
** Audience members will be served a selection of top-shelf, loose-leaf teas throughout the piece. If you are sensitive to caffeine and want to partake of the tea, please consider attending an afternoon show.
***Â This piece contends with the meaning of life and our agency around end of life. It does not assume that there is a correct answer to how we live or when we stop living. Please feel free to reach if you have questions about if this show is for you, we would be happy to provide more information.
Special Thanks
Thanks to The Arctic Circle Residency for trusting artists, ASLE Climate Conference for their last-minute addition of this piece in progress to a conference two years in the making, Cannonball for creating a home and hub in the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, Kindling for nurturing this piece in its infancy, In Pursuit of Tea for their expertise, kindness, and sponsorship, and the many playtesters of the work who’s names are to come.
