Selkie Play

Selkie Play is an original play by Kara O’Rourke named after the Irish myth of the selkie, a creature who can shapeshift between seal and human form. In the stories, selkie women are often forced to wed human men who steal and hide away their sealskin, without which they cannot return to the sea. Through this mythology and some other familiar faces from literature, the text explores ideas of gender fluidity, gender roles, cisnormativity, heteronormativity, sexuality, and the desire to reclaim one’s identity after it’s been stolen. Also fishing nets, harpoons, flower crowns, and Captain Ahab from Moby Dick.