"Rooftops"

Five. Five characters from five different parts of the world and five different time periods on a rooftop:  Mina, Kim, Ink, Bly and Mietek. 

The rooftop is surrounded with water as far as the eye can see.  Are they dead?  “Most certainly not.  We are all Apathetic!”  Well then how did they arrive and how do they leave? 

Inspired by the ritual of the buffoon and the physical exactness of the Commedia Del Arte, “Rooftops” is a comical and surreal look at how people deal with grief and overcome apathy when they have lost their entire support network.  When the play opens we are greeted by four characters upon the rooftop and waiting for the “next one” and it isn’t long until Mina arrives.   As the show progresses we see that each character has an object: a symbol that represents who they are or where they are from.  Ink- his fishing rod, Mietek- tobacco, Mina- a small wooden box, Bly- a feather and Kim spends his time planting and replanting his pepons or pumpkins. 

They are free to leave at any time.  So why do they stay?  We watch as they make excuses, quarrel, make-up and exchange ideas through ritualized and acrobatic storytelling all in an attempt to both avoid and address reality and wonder and wait for the next one to arrive and for the next one to leave. 

The story is told through the memories of Mietek, a survivor of the Polish resistance of WW2 and Mina, an Indonesian woman , who lost her family and village in the 2004 tsunami.   The language of the play forms a musicality throughout the performance and has a conciseness and matches the physical rhythms of the characters.