A Map to Somewhere Else
Three college kids return to an enchanted kingdom, and face everything they left behind.
Images from Everyday Inferno (Credit: Anais Koivisto)
Natasha Matterly, on ‘suicide leave’ from college, is ransacking the house of her newly dead grandfather with the help of her best friend Emily. They find a number of unexpected things, including a hand-drawn map of a non-existent country, and a troupe of bizarre creatures trying to find their way back home. When Emily meets Nat’s cousin, Constantine, time stops and music plays… literally. But Constantine has another agenda: helping the imaginary friends of his childhood return to Draegermandia, a fantastical land of lost princes, thwarted romance and endless war.
“This play takes us on a magical, funny and dramatic ride to the depths of a child’s imagination.” -Manhattan with a Twist
“A Map to Somewhere Else confronts the terrifying and magical consequences our imaginary worlds face when we leave them behind for more adult concerns. …touching, funny, and at times frightening. This is not the sanitized children’s fantasy we are often presented with… Here human failings and morbid magic live side by side with fuschia bunnies and fantastical musical numbers. It is this honesty about children’s imaginations and capacity for storytelling that make the piece seem so real and connect so deeply.” -Theatre is Easy
“As children we create entire worlds… whole lifetimes within ourselves. After watching A Map to Somewhere Else I feel foolish for ever considering that time and those ideas as somehow separate from myself… While deeply compelling as a performance, the most interesting part of this experience occurred after I left the theatre. I spent my train ride home attempting to piece together the imagined histories from my own childhood.” -Theatre is easy
“There is a lot to be excited about in Reina Hardy’s A Map to Somewhere Else – there’s a colorful cast of characters thrown (mostly) unwittingly into an epic fantasy quest. There’s fanciful creatures, asthma attacks, distortion of the time-space continuum, thrilling combat, and plenty more.” -NY Theatre Now