OUR COUNTRY

“A powerful, intelligent show in which the mythic and modern Americas meet head-on in an examination of a complex sibling relationship.”– Lynn Gardner, The Stage

Our Country has been presented in the Edinburgh Festival at Summerhall where it received the Lustrum Award, at Sibiu Festival in Romania with Aurora Nova, at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, at the Getty Villa as part of its Experimental Theater Lab, and at the Public Theater’s Under the Radar Festival in their Incoming series as part of the Devised Theater Working Group. 

From the wild frontier to Ancient Greece, this piece digs into origin mythologies both public and private, recalling a time when we were young—as siblings, as a nation, as a democratic system. An autobiographical journey inspired by Sophocles’ Antigone and based on recorded conversations between Saunders and her outlaw brother, this experimental performance work immerses the audience in world of sleight of hand, athletic virtuosity and a scenic coup de théâtre as the space transforms to envelope them in the world of the story and their own voices join those of the performers. The borders between self and other vanish and reappear and small disputes quickly grow violent, recalling younger days: as siblings, as a nation, as a democracy — how far have we really come?