by Hillary Gao

(The Brick, July 2023)

I will produce a full production of this piece, which has received multiple developmental workshops and readings, at The Brick this summer.

About the Play

would you set the table if I asked you to? is a movement performance play that explores the well-intentioned but misguided lessons we pass onto future generations. Set in an undefined space and time, a mother tries to teach her children the lessons that helped her survive:
1. “Be smart,”
2. “Keep your head down,” and
3. “Shut the fuck up”

When these lessons fail to prevent her children from transforming into animals, her preconceptions of the world around her crumble. would you set the table if I asked you to? unfolds using non-linear timelines, audience participation, and ritual transformations in order to create an environment of grief and reckoning, leaving the audience questioning their voyeuristic role and considering the arbitrary distinction between human/animal, civilized/savage.

Go here to learn more about this play’s development history.