Hard Lovin’ Ever After

Adapted from Love Suicides at the Women’s Temple by the famed 18th-century Japanese dramatist Chikamatsu, Hard Lovin’ Ever After tells the story of a pair of lovers pushed to the brink. Young and full of passion, these two can’t realize their dream of a life together. She’s forced into a marriage with a rich merchant to pay off her parents’ debts. He’s a fugitive in hiding at a Buddhist monastery. But their ardor can’t be quelled by a few marriage or religious vows, so they set off on a course to double suicide, hoping to be united in bliss on a snow-white lotus. Precise and surprising, funny and rhythmic, contemporary and eclectic, this new show explores the collision of desire and passion with the hard reality of an unforgiving world.

Directed by Jyana S. Gregory, with a new script by Lucas Hnath and music composed by Rika Iino in collaboration with Pete List, the show features actors Anna Fitzwater, Andrew Grusetskie, John Patrick Higgins, Kristine Kuroiwa, Kevin Townley, and Bobby Williams, the voice/beats/guitar/loops of Pete List, costumes by Jessica Ford, and light/space design by Shaun Fillion.