Theatrical rising star and O’Neill finalist Amy Berryman brings us an “intelligent, soulful drama” (The Guardian) about how vast the space can be between two people. In the near future, Stella and her fiancé, Bryan, are waiting at their remote cabin for Stella’s estranged twin sister, Cassie. Raised by their astronaut father to be NASA scientists, the twins have taken different paths: Cassie has just returned from a successful moon mission, while Stella has left NASA behind. When they reunite, old conflicts reignite, forcing the sisters to choose between staying on Earth or pursuing a future in space, as humanity’s fate hangs in the balance. Directed by Tony Award®️ nominee Whitney White (Jaja's African Hair Braiding), Walden is a thrilling and engrossing new play that wrestles between the gravitational pulls of duty and desire.
Despite the hat tip to Thoreau in its title, “Walden” eventually goes full soap opera. Its crisis isn’t so much about forcing Stella to choose between Mars and Earth as about forcing her to choose between Cassie and Bryan. The performances often lean overbroad too, laboriously alternating between breeziness and dudgeon. Only Winters, always an expert at making contradictions emulsify, is convincing — if not overall, then moment by moment.
Thanks to Rossum’s and Winters’ fearless performances, and the smooth direction of Whitney White (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding), we see the distance between the siblings, but we also see the indissoluble attachment. (Hard to believe that Rossum, who spent nine seasons on the Showtime black comedy Shameless, is making her off-Broadway debut.) And hat tip to casting director Taylor Williams: Rossum and Winters actually do look like twin sisters.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Second Stage Theater Off-Broadway Premiere Off-Broadway |
Videos