Starcrosser’s Cut

Inspired by astronaut Lisa Nowak’s 2007 arrest for the attempted murder of a romantic rival, Starcrosser’s Cut is an inner-space detective story, a cassette symphony in the tradition of Krapp’s Last Tape, and an indictment of the nihilism of the US Space Program. Based loosely on the real-life transcript of Nowak’s police interview after her arrest, a character known only as “Lisa” listens back to the tape, re-enacts her interview with the detective, and attempts to re-record it all. Through a labyrinth of tape edits and revisions within revisions, the play takes an unflinching look at the “crimes that are ours to do” – those beyond guilt. From jail cell to Space Shuttle, the mystery that emerges is not whether Lisa did it – it’s whether a crime can cease to be a crime, or can cease to be entirely.