Photo Flash: First Look at World Premiere of DEATH PLAY at Circle X Theatre Co.

Circle X Theatre Co. has released a look at the world premiere of a new play, DEATH PLAY, written by Lisa Dring and directed by Jessica Hanna. DEATH PLAY previewed on Thursday, March 17 & Friday, March 18 and opened on Saturday, March 19 at 8pm and run through Saturday, April 23 at Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave. in Los Angeles, 90039. Scroll down for photos!

DEATH PLAY is an exploration of the echoes we leave behind. It's a story about the great magic and total crap of dying. This evocative solo piece received its festival premiere in July 2015 as a part of Son of Semele Theater's Solo Creation Festival in Los Angeles, and has also been developed with Actors Theatre of Louisville and One Year Lease Theater Company.

Funny, heartbreaking and candid, DEATH PLAY asks us what we do with the disappearances we face through the loss of those we love, America's chosen blindness toward the aging, especially older women, and the Japanese American pursuit of belonging. Dring explores these questions through the lens of her personal experience: the loss of both parents and her grandmother, all during her early 20s.

Says Dring, "The play calls in the archetypes of maiden, mother and crone, allowing me to explore my shifting identity. DEATH PLAY also challenges us to look at how we envision and interact with the crone. Women in America are consistently shamed by age. We don't hold any reverence for feminine power beyond the beauty of her skin, and if we followed much of the media it would appear that the worst thing a woman could do would be to have the audacity to become old. This play asks us to take a deep, dark look at the crone, and find out why we are so frightened."

Photo Credit: Jeff Galfer