In the plays collected here—Ramp and Mushroom—Pulitzer
Prize finalist Eisa Davis mingles modes of myth and speculation,
documentary and fiction in two plays about family, desire, restorative
justice, ecological sustainability, and immigration amongst the working
class. Ramp adapts the foundational Egyption saga of Isis /
Osiris and sets on a near-future airline ramp, where siblings Isis,
Osiris, Seth, and Nepthys throw luggage on planes and bicker about our
thorny, precipitate futurity: should change be fast or gradual? Can the
ecological revolution we require for survival produce ease and peace if
it’s rooted in violence? Is the path to utopia brutal? Must it be? Mushroom
centers on the lives, loves, and working conditions of the Mexican and
Central American mushroom-pickers in and around the town of Kennett
Square, Pennsylvania, where over 40% of all the mushrooms we eat in this
country come from. Through a series of intersecting
narratives traversed by English, Spanish, K'iche' and Malayalam
speakers, Mushroom considers a workplace dispute that has
serious ramifications for multiple immigrant families, mapping
how compassion and justice might intersect.