Anais Nin Goes to Hell

I want to see this play. I wish I lived in New York. It's playing this month. It probably is time for me to revisit NYC anyway... Laughter and Anais? Sign me up.




Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell by David Stallings, is an existential comedy with a strong ensemble cast of characters. This new play explores the question of whether Sartre was right and hell really is other people, or whether we carry around our potential for damnation or salvation within ourselves. The play opens on an island off the coast of Hades where five women have been stranded for centuries. They are Heloise (a twelfth century nun), Andromeda (a Grecian princess), Victoria (Queen of England), Joan of Arc (soldier and prophet), and Cleopatra (queen of Egypt). Each woman waits for the love of her life to come and rescue her—except for Joan of Arc who is waiting for God himself. They cannot leave the island out of fear of a giant Hydra that reputably circles the island and eats any who attempt to escape. These lively women are each stuck in her own century and time—never willing to release old wounds or failures.

Their world is turned upside down however when twentieth century erotica writer and psychoanalyst, Anaïs Nin is shipwrecked on their shore. Anaïs reinvents her life long struggle to awaken autonomy and self-confidence in this band of women. She also struggles with inner turmoil—never knowing if her only purpose is to see in others what she cannot see in herself. At the climax of her fight, her purpose is endangered when a man swims ashore. He gives the group hope in finding their men and ending their time in solitude. Each woman must decide whether she has evolved beyond what she was in life and if her goals have changed. Discoveries are made as some of the women transform and enliven—realizing that they do not need to be defined by their past achievements or views.

In the end, some women change and some do not, but Anaïs is still left alone in her question; once the use of our battle is over, once we have won or failed…do we still have a purpose?

Anaïs Nin Goes to Hell received its first public reading as part of MTWorks NewBorn Festival 2007 directed by Cristina Alicea; later in the fall it received its second reading at Boston Theatre Works: Unbound Festival, garnering the First Prize win. In Christmas of 2007, Michael Howard Studios hosted a reading of the play, as part of its Friday Night Series, directed by David Wells.



Maieutic Theatre Works