In 1664, Queen Christina abdicates the throne of Protestant Sweden, and journeys to Rome to convert to Catholicism. When she arrives, she is not greeted with the accolades she expected, but with an interrogation by Cardinal Azzolino – though he would prefer the term “confession”. The play takes place in the antechamber of the Vatican, as Christina and Azzolino match wits and wills. Their dialogue mixes with flashbacks as Christina explains the events leading up to her abdication. However, in the telling, Christina’s younger self is portrayed by two different characters: an aggressive tomboy named Chris, and the delicate princess, Tina. As the former queen’s confession unfolds, her boldness and vulnerability, independence and acquiescence, masculinity and femininity for dominance through this dramatic conceit. In the end, as it becomes impossible to separate truth from lies, Christina’s own perceptions of herself are forced to reconcile themselves, or she will be denied conversion, and cast out into the cold.

At heart, The Abdication is about love: the love of self and the love of others, and the way that love cracks when we set people apart – whether through power structures, societal conventions, or even something as simple as our faith.

In her writing, Wolff sacrifices hard-line historical realism in favor of a drama that is whimsical and psychological, using history as a base upon which to build a truly modern play. In the spirit of this blend, our design for the production is also expressionistic, focusing on the feel of the piece more than a slavish devotion to historical accuracy. Taking seventeenth-century Sweden and Rome as a baseline, the design of this piece will also blend in touches that are modern or non-realistic. We want to call attention to the elements of Wolff’s writing that speak to the present, as well as to the idea that the space we are in is Christina’s own head rather than the actual seventeenth-century Vatican.

The show features the work of Michelle Burweiler, Tom Dewey, Brenan Grant, Jenny Hickman, David Klein, Emily Leong, Robin Macartney, Afton Pilkington, Stephen Scheide, Jake Sherman, Ryan Spickard, Jeremy Thompson, Kristie Tice, Jacob Tice, and Julia Welch

July 7th-9th, 14th-16th, 21st-23rd
7:30pm
The Odd Duck Studio: 1214  10th Ave, Seattle

A recording of the production can be found at: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3B75616600199338