“Nothing is more inexplicable than friendship in childhood. It is not companionship, though the two are often confused... A child does not seek to bond with another child. The bond, defying knowledge and understanding, either is there, or is not; once a bond comes into existence, no child knows how to break from it until the setting is changed... Childhood friendship, much more fatal [than love at first sight], simply happens.”
In Wake, we get to watch young actors play at being girls, teenagers, and adults. This playing is fun, but it is also a serious provocation. The actors and their bodies bring their characters’ young selves with them as they move through time. They hold tight to their grief and their bonds to those who know the same griefs and joys. Watching them, we can challenge ourselves to cast our imaginations into the future and the past along with them.
—The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
The motion of Wake is watery. Sometimes the scenes are a tide moving in and out gently, and sometimes they crash onto shore. And in all the ways water is beautiful and dangerous, so are these four people’s relationships to each other.
“Tidalectics entangles the before and after of chronic time and offers an alternative to linear, futureoriented progress. The Maori proverb “Ka mura, Ka muri” emphasizes this view. Translating as ‘walking backward into the future,’ it does not simply reverse the arrow of time but deeply enmeshes the past and future with each other. While we cannot see the futures we are moving into, we keep an eye on our ancestors’ past, which shapes our every step.” —Tidalectics: Imagining an Oceanic View Through Art and Science by Stefanie Hessler
WAKE
Wake explores the distinction between a generation of parents who emigrated from Asia and children who grew up Asian American. When the right bodies inhabit the roles, it’s clear why they are who they are. — Hannah Fennell Gellman, Production Dramaturg
LANGSTON HUGHES FESTIVAL OF NEW WORK | 2022–23 SEASON