Burn This

GroundUp Theatre presents Burn This, Pulitzer Prize winner Lanford Wilson’s story of one woman’s exploration of art and sexuality.

Saudade – one of the world’s most difficult words to translate into English, is a Portuguese term that roughly means an extreme and active longing for something that is lost, but that may return someday. It is characterized by a multitude of feelings – joy in remembering a loved one, sorrow in their absence and the undying hope for their possible return, even when this is seemingly unimaginable. Burn This explores saudade when love, loss and longing intersect to ignite passions in a Manhattan loft as Anna, a dancer, mourning the recent death of her dance partner, embarks on a solo journey to discover her own creative voice. To illustrate this concept, GroundUp’s production features a full-length pas de deux and several, shorter modern dance pieces woven throughout the play. Traditional Portuguese Fado music, which has roots in saudade, is employed to further illuminate this theme, along with contemporary pieces to bring the two worlds together as one.