i will still be whole (when you rip me in half) (2019)

I was dramaturg for Ava Wong Davies’ debut play about motherhood and belonging.

“And the stone which encased her body cracks open.
And she shakes off the vines and the dust.
And she feels the blood under her skin.”

In 1996, a young mother with a bag in her hand walks out of a small house in Shepherd’s Bush. She does not look back.

In 2019, a daughter lies in a bath until her skin blooms. She looks up to stare at a crack in the ceiling.

After 22 years, EJ prepares to meet the mother who left her. Joy prepares to meet the child she doesn't know. They run, they bathe, they inhale, they wait.

i will still be whole... is a lyrical interlinking of monologues devoted to race, belonging, and what we inherit from our parents.