Jordan

What drives a mother to murder her own child? Since Euripides penned his classic tragedy Medea almost 2500 years ago, that elusive question has haunted the minds and chilled the souls of audiences around the world. And yet the subject is still as relevant as ever, as stories like those of Andrea Yates and Susan Smith continue to dominate the headlines and captivate psychologists and legal experts alike.

Jordan is a harrowing one-woman play based upon the true story of Shirley Jones, a young single mother who kills her child, rather than placing him in the custody of his abusive father. The play takes place in a British court waiting room during the final hour of Jones’ trial, as she awaits a jury’s verdict. In a chilling, intimate monologue that travels back and forth in time, as well as in and out of her fragmented imagination, Shirley struggles to make sense of the events leading up to her crime.