PILGRIMS Comes to West Of Lenin This May

Forward Flux Productions is thrilled to present PILGRIMS by Claire Kiechel, playing at West of Lenin from May 1st - 19th. This play was workshopped in our Studio for four weeks last year, and we are excited to remount it as a full production for its West Coast premiere. During our Studio workshop, there were 5 public performances where audiences were invited to provide insight and thoughts after each performance. These insights were shared with the playwright, who also visited Seattle to watch the production in person. It has since world premiered at The Gift Theatre in Chicago where it was a pick by the Chicago Sun Times, and Perform Ink said it is "relevant, funny, confusing, heartbreaking, uncomfortable, and beautiful." Playwright Claire Kiechel has also written SOME DARK PLACES OF THE EARTH and NORWAY, and she is a writer on the upcoming second season of Netflix's "The OA."

PILGRIMS will be directed by Forward Flux Creative Director Emily Penick, who directed the Studio workshop last year. Penick will also be designing the set. Last fall, she directed the all female CORIOLANUS - FIGHT LIKE A BITCH. Penick says, "after directing the final workshop of the script last year, I'm elated to be revisiting this titillating and unnerving futuristic world for a full production. Claire has written a psychological thriller which scares and thrills me as a storyteller. I'm in love with her tender, terrifying, and utterly human characters, and can't wait to share them with Seattle."

PILGRIMS is a sci-fi thriller set aboard a spaceship. In the play, a soldier, a girl, and a robot are quarantined while traveling to colonize a newly discovered planet. In the close confines of the ship cabin, the soldier and the girl are forced to examine their past traumas, and their roles in a dying society. It was included on the Kilroy List, 2016 (a list of the best new plays by female and trans playwrights from around the nation). The cast features Chris Shea and Meghan Dolbey as the Soldier and the Girl, and Alaji Marie returns as Jasmine the Robot.

The creative team includes Natalie H. Berg (Stage Manager), Andy Buffelen (Production Management), Nova Dobrev (Costumes), Justin Duffiance (Technical Director), Wesley Frugé (Producer), Lily McLeod (Lighting), Ryan Scott (Sound), and Elizabeth Wu (Assistant Director).

Tickets range from $30-$45 with subsidized options being offered starting at just $10. They are available in advance at forwardflux.com.

Content warning: sexual violence, nudity, language.

Run time: 90mins with no intermission