The God Box is based on a true story. It explores the complexity of the family, love and loss, guilt’s endurance and its destruction, the power of imagination, and the lasting impressions religion can leave on a child’s mind.  It is inspired by W. W. Jacobs’s Gothic tale, The Monkey’s Paw (1902). In Jacob’s tale, a talisman, the paw of a dead monkey, grants its possessor three wishes, but the wishes come with an enormous price. The moral of the story is contained in this description of the paw: “‘It had a spell put on it by an old fakir,’ said the sergeant-major, ‘a very holy man. He wanted to show that fate ruled people's lives, and that those who interfered with it did so to their sorrow.’” Working with The Monkey’s Paw’s structure of three wishes that are granted, The God Box weaves a troubling tapestry of darkness and light, the threads of which appear at times deeply religious and at others supernatural.

OCTOBER 7 - 11 2008

Direction & Concept:

Mia van Leeuwen

Dan Augusta

Sharon Bajer

Coral Maloney

Ian Mozdzen

Debbie Patterson

Tom Stroud

Claire Therese

Collaborators & Performers:

photos by Leif Norman