THE RAVELING

An avant-garde family history drama that teases apart the knotted expectations of coming together for dinner: In a surrealist interweaving of personal narratives, song, fairy tales, and food preparation, the cast grapples with the dissonance between the need to belong and the sublime agitation of organizing one’s life around other people. Inspired by true personal narratives of the performers, there is a living question for the ensemble in tracing something of where they each come from and asking what is needed for them to come together. What is the work of coming undone?

THE RAVELING was co-created in special partnership with Delhi-based theater Guild of the Goat, Toronto vocalist Fides Krucker, and writer Morgan McNaught, and was developed in 2018 in residence at the Chicago Performance Lab at the University of Chicago and in 2019 at Links Hall. THE RAVELING was presented in 2019 at the Chicago Physical Theater Festival, and at Victory Gardens Theatre’s Prince Hall with free performances presented by Chicago’s Night Out In The Parks at Independence Park, Seward Park, Tuley Park, and Sherman Park.

Directed by Gabriel Thom Pasculli in collaboration with vocal specialist Fides Krucker and with original text by Morgan McNaught.

Created and performed by Walkabout ensemble members Nigel Brown, McCambridge Dowd-Whipple, Cooper Forsman, Dana Murphy, Katie Mazzini, and Anastacia Narrajos, with Guild of the Goat ensemble members Anirudh Nair and Amba-Suhasini Jhala. 

Production team includes lighting designers Dina Marie Saubert & Bran Moorhead, costume designer Myron Elliott-Cisneros, scenic designer Dominique Zaragoza, assistant director Monet Felton and Sonya Madrigal, and stage manager Shanyn Strub.