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[0:05] Iyvon Edebiri: Yes, yes, yes. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Parsnip Ship. My name is Iyvon E, and tonight we are hearing the fourth episode of season six, which features all queer playwrights. This season we will be bringing their dynamic, colorful, all-around universal stories to you and your ears. We are recording tonight at the Mark O'Donnell Theater at the Entertainment Community Fund Art Center here in downtown Brooklyn. Thank you again for hosting us. Tonight we are hearing the play, The Wild Boar of Chernobyl by Francesca Pazniokas, directed by Felicia Lobo, and our musician tonight is Ray McGale.

[1:10] Francesca Pazniokas: Well, I wrote this play right before I was thinking about quitting playwriting, and I said, I know, I was like, let me write one more play that is just everything I want to write. Like just weird, mind blowing, authentic to me, and spooky and strange. And maybe I'll convince myself to keep writing. So I guess the world would have one less playwright if I hadn't written this play. Thank you for that wonderful response.

[1:35] Iyvon Edebiri: All right, so we're gonna start off our night with our first song from our musician Ray. Take it away, The Wild Boar of Chernobyl, written by Francesca Pazniokas, directed by Felicia Lobo.

[5:04] Iyvon Edebiri: We'll begin with our cast of characters. First, there's Father, a preacher played by Brian Bock. And his wife, Mother, Silent and Very Pregnant, played by Laura Hetherington. And their daughter. Girl, seven or eight years old, played by Alexandra Curran. Father, mother, girl. The nuclear family at the heart of this tale. They may not know it, but they're the four horsemen of the apocalypse. War, famine, pestilence, and death. Father is war, mother is famine, girl is pestilence, and death. Well, death will be here soon enough, so don't worry. We're also joined by Governor, a middle-aged bureaucrat, played by Danté Jeanfelix. And a doctor, played by Alyssa Block. And I'm Janice Amaya, reading stage directions.

That's all you need to know for now. Now let's travel deep underground to a subterranean cave. Large stalactites and stalagmites frame the space. They drip into a small pool which shimmers in the dim light, shimmering like its surface is glossed with oil. Or nuclear runoff. From top to bottom, every part of this cave is dark, damp, and completely uninhabitable. A young girl sits in the center of it, flouncy skirt, bobby socks, bow in her hair. She's as comfortable as most children would be in a schoolyard or living room. Instead, she's here, in the middle of an underground cave, alone, playing with a toy lizard.

[6:41] Girl: When the Great War is done, there won't be anyone. Just me. I'll be floating through the Pssst. Dark. At the Great Reckoning, I will be there beckoning. Psst! Little girl. Hello? Over here. I believe I may be stuck.

[7:33] Governor: Thank you. Much appreciated. But this isn't. I must have taken a wrong turn at Cave 665. Is this the drainage system for uh which cave is this?

[7:48] Girl: My cave.

[7:52] Governor: You don't uh pardon me, but you don't uh live here, do you?

[8:00] Girl: Yes, with mommy and daddy.

[8:00] Governor: Right, yes, your father, that's who I'm looking for. The preacher. You're sweaty. Is your father the preacher?

[8:07] Girl: Who are you?

[8:09] Governor: I am your governor.

[8:16] Girl: And you are?

[8:17] Governor: The governor reaches out his hand to the girl, offering her a handshake.

[8:21] Girl: She hands him her toy lizard.

[8:24] Governor: Oh, what's uh what's this then?

[8:28] Girl: A lizard?

[8:30] Governor: Is it?

[8:30] Girl: I made him. Well, mommy helped. You can play with him if you want. Um that's his tail?

[8:38] Governor: Oh, then what's this?

[8:40] Girl: Another tail?

[8:41] Governor: Lizard should only have one.

[8:44] Girl: Hey! He's my only friend, so be nice to him.

[8:47] Governor: I was joked. He's supposed to have two. One tail's for him and one's for another lizard. Cause you cut his tail off and grow another lizard from the tail, and another and another and another, and it's just like the lizards that come from outside.

[9:01] Governor: I don't see any lizards.

[9:03] Girl: I said outside, up there, with the sun and the trees and the wild boar.

[9:07] Governor: The wild uh wild boar outside. Where we're all going soon. Did your father tell you that?

[9:15] Governor: Listen, little girl. You can't go above ground. There isn't anything up there. Not anymore. It's very dangerous. But your father shouldn't tell you stories, not just you. I mean he shouldn't tell anyone. The committee wants him to stop.

[9:33] Girl: Committee?

[9:34] Governor: The committee to repatriate underground preceding the Great War of 2000. The nice men who brought us down here brought everyone underground when the bombs came. They built our homes and built our stalls and roads and they dim our lights when it's night, make it bright when it's day, and change the pictures in our windows from summer to fall, so we can wear our nice overcoats.

[10:02] Girl: Will I need an overcoat outside?

[10:04] Governor: You can't go. Tell him, Mommy!

[10:06] Mother: Mother enters. She's very pregnant. Only weeks, maybe even days from giving birth. He doesn't believe me. I told him that.

[10:15] Girl: Okay. No, but. Mommy, no, because my foot hurts, and I'm not done playing!

[10:20] Governor: Ma'am, uh, hello. I'm the local governor. I'm here to speak with your husband. If he's home.

[10:32] Mother: Sorry, is he home?

[10:35] Girl: She already said so. Listen better.

[10:38] Governor: Wonderful! And where is that exactly?

[10:45] Mother: Your home.

[10:46] Mother: Mother settles herself on a nearby rock, stares back at the governor with her fathomless eyes, waiting for him to understand.

[10:54] Governor: Ah. I see. I gather this is your home, then. This uh ah is really where you live. It's lovely, really. It's so uh authentic. Is this the original limestone?

[11:18] Governor: I admit uh I'd forgotten what it looked like. I mean, I know I my home must have looked like this uh before the committee from anterior and interior housing aesthetics painted and built it up to look like uh a house above ground. I think of it like it's a house above ground. My wife, she uh decorated just so, and we never speak of it any other way, but it I suppose it really isn't a house at all, is it?

[11:49] Mother: Not really.

[11:51] Governor: It's uh uh I mean it's uh I live in uh cave. Isn't that funny? I mean it would be funny if I thought about it, but I try very hard not to think about it, you see, but it's true, and we do. I'm sorry, it's very warm in here. Do you think I might trouble you for a glass of water? Or if you have water, or the sound of someone striding closer and closer echoes through the cavern.

[12:28] Father: Father is approaching. I'd say dinner is ready, but as usual, someone hasn't set the table.

[12:30] Governor: Who's this?

[12:39] Father: Sir, I'm I didn't ask you. I asked my wife.

[12:42] Governor: Governor?

[12:43] Father: Governor of what?

[12:45] Girl: Can he stay for dinner, Daddy? He's funny, and his breath smells bad, and I like him.

[12:49] Father: There will be no dinner if you don't set the table. Look at me. You're old enough to help your mother, and she's in no condition to keep doing it herself. Do you hear me?

[13:00] Girl: You're silly. Come on, mommy.

[13:02] Girl exits with mother holding her favorite toy lizard.

[13:06] Governor: Sir, as your governor, I knew that your church is the fastest growing church in my jurisdiction, but I had no idea you were not just a man of faith, but a family man. And what a family. They're simply—

[13:22] Father: Get out. Sir. You can't just barge into my home unannounced.

[13:28] Governor: It's dinner.

[13:29] Girl: But, sir, I've been sent by the committee against subterranean civil unrest.

[13:35] Governor: Do you understand? This is a matter of—

[13:37] Governor: I don't care.

[13:39] Girl: Sir, I please you stop telling people they can go outside.

[13:48] Governor: What do you govern?

[13:50] Girl: I what?

[13:52] Governor: You said you're the governor, so governor of what?

[13:56] Governor: Of this jurisdiction?

[13:58] Governor: Caves 4282954. Not the most uh prestigious assignment, rather backwater, but it's mine.

[14:07] Girl: And sir, it is of the utmost importance that you see.

[14:10] Governor: How did you get this jurisdiction?

[14:12] Girl: I was elected.

[14:14] Governor: I don't remember an election.

[14:16] Girl: I was elected by the Committee for Subsurface Civil Servants.

[14:20] Governor: So you were appointed?

[14:22] Girl: Well, elected by an elected body.

[14:25] Governor: And who elected the committee?

[14:27] Girl: Sir, I have great faith in our system of government. I certainly wouldn't risk that faith with understanding.

[14:35] Governor: The point is, no one can go outside. It isn't possible.

[14:41] Governor: If it was, believe me, I would be the first man out. I'm tremendously claustrophobic, I'll have you know.

[14:49] Governor: And I'm old enough to remember what the sky looked like before it caught on fire.

[14:55] Girl: Well, don't you want to see it again?

[14:57] Governor: Of course I do. Of course. But I can't.

[15:01] Girl: Why are you so sure?

[15:03] Governor: Because I know I can't. Because I've spent years trying to forget what it looks like, what clouds are like and the edges of a lake, where the reeds meet the water, and what dry earth smells like, just before it rains, and I'm happy. I'm very happy here.

[15:28] Governor: I never think about it up there. I never do. I'm happy at my work and my home, and people trek miles to see you and hear your sermons.

[15:42] Girl: It's irresponsible.

[15:43] Governor: No, it's cruel to give them hope.

[15:47] Girl: What's cruel about hope?

[15:49] Governor: Because even if by some miracle you had the money and the means to bring us all outside, it would be so dangerous that we would die instantly. Nuclear winter after nuclear war. That's all we'd find.

[16:03] Girl: What about the men who elected you? The men with all the money and all the means. Are you sure that they don't go outside?

[16:14] Governor: Yes. Of course I'm. I'm sure. Of course. I never even consider the possibility.

[16:21] Girl: Consider it. Consider why they might be so determined to keep me from telling my congregation that one day soon they'll return to their lives above ground.

[16:35] Governor: It seems curious that they would send you to stop me if what I promise is impossible.

[16:44] Girl: No, I'm not. A governor doesn't ask questions. A governor implements answers.

[16:52] Governor: And the answer to can we go outside is stop talking. Period. Full stop.

[16:59] Girl: If you tell your congregation you were wrong, we are prepared to give you a house in one of the most exclusive caves in this jurisdiction, paid for entirely by—

[16:59] Girl: I won't. I will not lie to them, and I won't lie to you either.

[17:19] Mother: Daddy, I said it! I set the table all by myself. I set the—

[17:22] Girl: My foot hurts!

[17:24] Girl: It hurts still.

[17:26] Mother: Well, then I will tell them.

[17:29] Girl: Yeah. I'll tell your congregation. I'll tell them the truth.

[17:34] Mother: Where does it hurt?

[17:35] Girl: This simply cannot go on any longer.

[17:38] Girl: Look!

[17:39] Girl: (turns and lifts up the back of her shirt) There's a foot growing out of her back.

[17:44] Governor: It's perfectly articulated down to the ankle. Looks a little red. Have you been itching it or what's the matter with you?

[17:57] Girl: She has a foot growing out of her.

[18:03] Mother: Yes, coming, darling. You heard your mother.

[18:07] Girl: Something's wrong. Very wrong.

[18:10] Mother: Something's—I'm right behind you. She needs a doctor.

[18:14] Girl: You need to bring her to a doctor right away.

[18:19] Governor: We will not leave here. We'll never leave until we go outside.

[18:29] Girl: Here. I'll bring her a doctor. If you s let me speak to your congregation.

[18:37] Mother: Fine. You'll let me speak to them.

[18:41] Girl: I'll let you bring a doctor. Then we'll see.

[18:46] Mother: Good. Good. Thank you.

[18:51] Girl: Then I'll see you. We have proof, you know.

[18:56] Girl: If you're willing to hear it. We have Mass in an hour, if you're willing to stay.

[19:03] Governor: Proof of what?

[19:06] Girl: Do you know the story of Chernobyl?

[19:10] Father: (stares out at the audience at his congregation spread before him, eager, listening, ready to receive his message) Do you know the story of Chernobyl?

[19:23] Father: Most of you do, but those new to our congregation, well, they may have never heard of it before. They don't teach the story in schools anymore, nothing in your history books, as if it never happened. They don't want you to know the story.

[19:40] Father: Do you know the story? Do you remember how it happened so far away and all those years ago? The night the nuclear power plant Chernobyl melted, exploded.

[19:54] Father: That night they were conducting a safety test. They were practicing how to stop a disaster. But instead, they caused the disaster.

[20:05] Father: Radiation in the water, in the air, in the soil, in the guts of children, little boys born with their stomachs outside their body, little girls with fluid on their brain, hair loss, hearing loss, lives lost, and then the most miraculous thing.

[20:25] Father: It came back. Nature came back to take what was hers. People watched, sick and helpless, as the towns they fled returned to the earth, grew green, grew deadly lush, grew without fear across abandoned cities.

[20:46] Father: The concrete crumbled and became dust, became dirt for a riot of trees. And at night, running through the forest, raining in the empty streets, the wild boar flourished.

[21:01] Father: One day we will be as strong as they were. See, the Christians, they believe the meek shall inherit the earth.

[21:14] Father: The meek. Look what the meek did to their earth. Look what the meek did to their God. Killed it, killed him, started a holy war, and buried a continent, made us crawl beneath the earth like worms, left us to rot underground like the dead.

[21:37] Father: They got what they wanted from God, their rapture, their end of days. And look at them now. Trapped with the rest of us. Abandoned, betrayed.

[21:53] Father: So let them keep their Jerusalems, their Meccas, their holy lands and holy cities. We have Chernobyl.

[22:12] Father: We know. Wilderness and wild boar are just above our heads. We remember the story of Chernobyl. We remember the wild boar. We suffer the hair loss, hearing loss, lives lost. We wait and we pray for the day we return from exile and inherit the earth.

[22:46] Mother: You know, the one on her back. Now it's more than just a foot and ankle, a bit of shin and calf are now showing.

[22:53] Mother: (sits next to the girl, holding her hand and watching intently)

[22:57] Father: (paces nearby) Can you feel this?

[23:02] Girl: Yeah.

[23:04] Father: And you said she's only had this a week.

[23:07] Girl: A week and a half.

[23:08] Father: Hmm. Why? Why?

[23:10] Girl: Hmm. What do you think it is?

[23:12] Father: How about this? Does this hurt?

[23:14] Girl: I don't like it.

[23:16] Father: Why don't you like it?

[23:20] Girl: That's a nice little friend you have there. Is he a lizard?

[23:24] Girl: Mm-hmm. I made him.

[23:26] Father: You did? What's his name?

[23:30] Girl: It's secret.

[23:32] Father: I see. Well, that makes sense. Names are a powerful thing. You can't just give someone you love just any name. It has to be special. Has to be everything you hope and dream for them for their whole life, all wrapped up in one little word.

[23:50] Girl: I guess I could tell you if you promise not to tell.

[23:55] Father: I promise.

[23:56] Girl: It's as the girl whispers into the doctor's ear, the governor enters, looking quite ill. He takes one look at the foot on the girl's back and moans, covering his face with a handkerchief and exiting again.

[24:08] Girl: Oh, that's a good name.

[24:10] Father: I know. Can I hold him?

[24:14] Girl: Well, look at him. He's perfect. You know, your lizard would be just as perfect with two tails, or three tails, or no tails at all. But maybe his extra tail gets in his way while he's playing, or makes it hard for him to wear his favorite shirt. Do you think he might want to take it off?

[24:35] Girl: Maybe, yeah. But then he won't look like the lizards outside.

[24:40] Girl: Oh, I wish there were lizards outside. But there hasn't been anything outside for years and years.

[24:47] Mother: (looks at father, eyes penetrating) Since before you were born, before the bombs. And the war destroyed everything, all the plants and animals.

[24:56] Girl: Excuse me. And the lizards, too. Now it's all just rocks and rubble and radiation, and thank you not to indoctrinate my child in front of me.

[25:06] Father: Endoctrinate.

[25:07] Girl: You may believe all that, but we don't.

[25:10] Father: Belief has nothing to do with it. It's fact. I think we're finished here. Get up.

[25:14] Girl: (gets up, then grabs the doctor's hand) Hey. But Daddy, I never have anyone to play with.

[25:21] Father: Go play with mommy.

[25:22] Girl: She's too big now.

[25:25] Father: No, mommy. I didn't mean it like that.

[25:29] Mother: (shuffles her away towards one of the pools of water, glistening under the stalactites) I'd ask you what's the matter with her, but I know nothing's the matter. She's exactly as God intended, of course. But I'm just I'm curious as to what it is.

[25:44] Father: What is it?

[25:46] Doctor: Well, it may be a parasitic twin. You know, a twin your daughter absorbed in the womb. Or it could be a generational disruption in her DNA. We see that fairly often, but all that happens at birth. So are you sure she hasn't had this since?

[26:02] Girl: I think I would notice a foot. I'm just asking.

[26:07] Doctor: This doesn't happen. Spontaneous mutations, they're I was going to say impossible, but uncommon, to say the least.

[26:15] Father: Well, she's no common child.

[26:19] Doctor: It's something you might see if maybe she was exposed to outside radiation.

[26:26] Girl: Outside. I mean, the levels would have to be astronomical. What are the levels in here?

[26:32] Doctor: I know you've kept it rustic, but do you think it's coming in?

[26:38] Girl: Outside radiation. When's the last time your home was inspected by the committee to maintain unradiated habitations?

[26:43] Doctor: Do you think it's coming from outside?

[26:46] Girl: I think there's a committee to prevent that from happening. Look, we'll ask the governor to schedule an inspection just to make sure everything's protocol.

[26:54] Doctor: And if the foot bothers her, I can remove it. It doesn't seem to be connected to any important vessels. It's not a real foot. It's just a sack of skin that serves no purpose at all. You know, like most people.

[27:09] Father: Well, I thought that was funny. I said, uh a spontaneous plume of acid erupts nearby.

[27:15] Mother: Shhh.

[27:16] Girl: What was that?

[27:18] Father: It's acid.

[27:19] Mother: How would we know if Acid?

[27:22] Girl: What do you mean, acid?

[27:24] Father: I mean, don't touch it if you want to keep your fingers.

[27:26] Mother: Where's it coming from?

[27:27] Father: I don't know. Perhaps it's Do you think it's coming from outside?

[27:31] Mother: Are you finished? Or is that thing still going to be?

[27:35] Father: We cannot live here.

[27:36] Mother: Why wouldn't we live here?

[27:38] Father: Can you please tell him? Explain to him. This cannot cannot be protocol.

[27:42] Mother: Acid?

[27:43] Father: I'm sure there isn't any acid. You have to get the levels checked. The radiation. Do you know how sick your family could get?

[27:51] Mother: Well, he seems quite healthy.

[27:53] Father: Precisely.

[27:54] Mother: As does his wife.

[27:55] Father: Precisely. I can't simply evict people from their homes.

[28:00] Mother: This is not a home. It's a minefield.

[28:03] Father: Now don't be hysterical. I know governors are just low-level bureaucrats, but I'm sure you can LO level!

[28:11] Mother: No. Bureaucrats!

[28:13] Father: Never. I will have you know that I was elected by the committee.

[28:18] Mother: There's absolutely no place for a child, let alone a baby.

[28:22] Father: It's the only place for them.

[28:24] Mother: You have to only place. You have to get out of here.

[28:27] Father: We can only get out of here if we stay here.

[28:32] Father: Scene four. Father stares at the audience, speaking to his congregation again. Another mass, another gathering of believers.

[28:41] Father: God, don't make me stay here. God, oh God of gods, let me see the sun again, the ocean again. Let me, let me. That's what I begged him. For years I begged him. I was no older than my daughter is now, but still I knew. I understood what was taken from me, from all of us. Please, we cannot stay here. I begged from the comfort of my little house built far beneath the ground. I begged as everyone around me grew older, grew comfortable. Forgot they'd ever seen the sun, forgot they'd even wanted to. You see, these cozy little houses, so conveniently built for us. These towns and tunnels, little parks with plastic grass. They are prisons. They trap us, they sedate us, they make us forget that we sleep under artificial lights, breathe artificial air, gaze out artificial windows.

[29:42] Father: No! We are the children of earth! Children of earth! My child has never seen these pale, these these mockeries of life outside. And now they threaten to take her away. All because I'm keeping her safe, keeping her from those abominations. That is why we raise her here in this cave. That is why my family stays here at the outskirts of civilization. Because here in the dark, in the damp, here is where we found the wisdom of every god I'd ever prayed to, every god who'd heard me begging, please, please, and never answered. Here is where we found the answer. We will not stay. Now I've told you for years we can go above ground. But now I've been shown a way, a path for us. Somewhere here in this cave is a crack, a gap, a tunnel, a way for outside to get in, and a way for us to get out.

It's only a matter of finding it, and we will find it. I will find it for my daughter and my children yet to come, so that the first moon she sees will be the moon. So she will see the stars. When she goes up, goes outside. The soul of the earth will cup the soles of her feet. She will breathe that air. She will climb those trees. She will watch the wild boar and inherit the earth. She will. She will. She will.

[31:40] Girl: Scene five. Girl is screeching in pain. The foot on her back seems longer. Bigger? Is it moving? Mother is at girl's side. Father is pacing again, distraught with worry, having an argument with his wife.

[31:56] Father: She won't. Because she won't. The doctor wouldn't do it here. We'd have to go to her office in town, and you know that's no.

[32:04] Mother: No! I'm not taking my child to those places. You know that's out of the question. You know I did it up.

[32:11] Father: Get it up! If God put that on your back, he put it there for a reason.

[32:14] Girl: Get it off me!

[32:15] Mother: Don't stop it! You're gonna hurt yourself.

[32:18] Mother: (pulls out a knife)

[32:19] Father: Her husband and daughter don't notice. Mother can't get their attention. Then there's a scream.

[32:27] Father: It doesn't come from mother. It comes from her stomach. Was that the baby?

[32:35] Mother: (holds up the knife) With one swift motion, she cuts the foot off of the girl's back.

[32:45] Girl: That's better.

[32:49] Mother: Shh.

[32:50] Father: picks up the girl, holds her, comforts her.

[32:54] Mother: (looks at the foot) Better? Is it better?

[32:59] Girl: Mm-hmm.

[33:01] Mother: Good. Good. That's good.

[33:07] Girl: When the great war is done, there won't be anyone. Just me. I'll be floating through.

[33:16] Girl: (itches her thigh, watching her mother walk towards one of the deep pools of water that shimmer under the dripping stalactites) Mommy, where are you going with my foot?

[33:26] Mother: (throws the foot into the water) It disappears with a splash.

[33:30] Girl: (itches her thigh again) My hand hurts.

[33:33] Father: (inspects one of her palms) Not that one.

[33:36] Girl: Then a gurgle. Bubbles erupt from the pool of water. The family turns to look.

[33:41] Father: Up from the pond rises a little body. They stare at it. It's a clone of girl grown from her discarded foot. A little clone we'll call one.

[33:52] Girl: (stares at one, transfixed, identical eyes staring back) Are you my foot?

[34:18] One: We are going to have so much fun.

[34:23] Girl: (reaches out to embrace one, but suddenly pulls away, flinching in pain) Wait, my hand!

[34:29] Girl: (lifts up her skirt to expose one thigh, where a hand is starting to grow)

[34:35] Mother: (and father look at each other)

[34:37] Mother: picks up the knife.

[34:39] Father: Scene six. The governor sits on a rock holding a bucket. Mother sits next to him holding a cup of tea.

[34:50] Governor: You know I greatly enjoyed your husband's excuse me. Your husband's l uh sermon last night. It was even better than Tuesday's. Uh I I think that was Tuesday's. What day is it? Uh Thursday.

[35:13] Mother: No, uh I think I think my wife. I think she would have found it exhilarating if she would have come with me.

[35:26] Governor: (wipes his mouth with a handkerchief) Thank you.

[35:33] Mother: She waits, stares at him.

[35:36] Governor: (takes a sip) The tea is dark as blood. Ah, that is most refreshing.

[35:46] Governor: I don't know why it is, but every time I'm here, I get the most peculiar headache. It's like uh my stomach gets my wife, she said she worries. She said it isn't good for me, she said. Uh she can smell this place on my skin when I get home, and it rubs onto our sheets and makes her uh (takes a sip of the tea, loses his train of thought)

[36:18] Governor: Sorry. What was I saying?

[36:21] Girl: (appears behind Mother) She looks just like the girl Governor knows, but hi Hello again.

[36:29] Governor: Who are you?

[36:30] Girl: Well, uh I'm still the governor, somehow. Uh even though the committee is livid that I another identical girl enters on the other side of the room.

[36:41] Girl: Hi.

[36:42] Governor: (stares at her) It's the little clone grown from girl's hand.

[36:46] Girl: (we'll call her two) What did Who are you?

[36:54] Father: (stalks in, followed by girl) Both are beaming.

[36:59] Girl: Hello again. What's happening? Stomach still bothering you. Am I did you always have three daughters?

[37:08] Governor: No.

[37:09] Girl: I made them.

[37:10] Father: Yes, you did, sweetheart. Now I have three friends.

[37:12] Girl: Well, two friends, and mad at my lizard. Did you bring it?

[37:18] Girl: I um go play. Come play. Come play.

[37:23] (All three girls scamper off.)

[37:25] Father: She made them.

[37:29] Governor: What do you mean, she let's see them.

[37:33] Father: It was hell to get these. The amount of paperwork I had to fill out with the committee for subcontinental infrastructures was damn near insurmountable.

[37:42] Father: (spreads the papers out onto the ground) It's a map of all the cave systems.

[37:47] Governor: What a fossil Why do you need these?

[37:51] Father: Why do you need these?

[37:53] Governor: I am the governor. I can ask for the maps to my jurisdiction any time I please.

[37:58] Father: What a fossil I said that already, didn't I?

[38:02] Governor: And these are all the caves. All the caves I govern.

[38:06] Father: (looks the maps over, walks around them) Mother draws closer, keeping a polite but interested distance.

[38:13] Mother: What if they fall into the wrong hands?

[38:15] Governor: What hands? The committee actually said that. To me, the governor.

[38:21] Governor: My hands are the best place for them. And I said, Why are you so afraid to give them to me?

[38:26] Governor: And they said, What if they fall into the wrong hands? Or maybe they said that first, and then I said.

[38:33] Father: You were right, you know.

[38:36] Governor: Of course you know. Now I'm sure they go up there. I'm sure of it. The looks on their faces, they all do.

[38:44] Governor: They go outside. They must. Oh the committees. Without me. I bet there's even there's a committee for summer trips to the surface.

[38:56] Governor: I bet there is. And they laugh behind my back. I know they do. I know they do.

[39:05] Governor: Low-level bureaucrats. I'm never. It's a backward shit stain of a place, but it's mine.

[39:13] Governor: It's mine. And is this where we are?

[39:17] Girl: What?

[39:17] Father: This loop here into the tunnel.

[39:20] Governor: No, that's uh I think that's cave 642, because that's the avenue to the shops, uh, right here.

[39:28] Father: But isn't that a that's the electrical plant.

[39:31] Governor: Oh. You know, I've lived so long in this cave, never going out, that even if I was trained to read these papers, I don't think I'd know what these places even were.

[39:43] Governor: I don't know this jurisdiction well enough. I'm not a governor, after all.

[39:48] Father: Well, not many people are.

[39:52] Governor: Here, I I think we're here.

[39:55] Father: (and the governor examine the page) Suddenly, mother reaches a hand between them.

[40:01] Mother: She stamps her finger into the middle of the paper. Certain. Good question, my love. Where's this?

[40:08] Governor: Uh well, that looks like it's uh uh above us, maybe. Are there any caverns above our head?

[40:17] Mother: Perhaps.

[40:42] Doctor: Suddenly the doctor enters, squeezes herself through the same hole the governor first entered from. She pulls a bag out from behind her, looks around, waiting to see if the coast is clear. It's quiet, save for that sound of distant digging. She takes out a small handheld machine, a Geiger counter. She turns it on, checking the radiation. It beeps and echoes in the space. She keeps walking. It beeps faster, faster. Suddenly, doctor stops short.

[41:11] Doctor: Oh, I. Hello.

[41:18] Mother: I came for a checkup for your daughter. I wanted to see how her foot was, you know, the one on her. But also. Actually, I also wanted to see you too. I want to talk to you very much. Can we talk for a moment?

[41:37] Doctor: You know, I have a little girl. She's three. And we schedule regular visits from the committee to make sure our home radiation levels stay undetectable. For her health and for our health. And I just I I know that it's very important to you to live like this. I understand that. And I don't want to be insensitive to your religious beliefs. I mean, I've met people who follow your husband who believe in his um his message, and I don't want to ask you to go against him or do anything behind his back. But I I just want to show you. If you look here on this machine here, the radiation levels that your daughter, your baby, are being exposed to, just mother to mother, you have to know this isn't healthy. You must.

[42:32] Doctor: She holds up the little machine, showing Mother the readings.

[42:40] Mother: If you knew you wouldn't do this. No mother would.

[42:49] Father: Her message.

[42:50] Doctor: What?

[42:51] Father: Father enters. He's dirty, as if he's been digging. He's holding a sledgehammer.

[42:56] Father: Her message. Hers and mine. She tells me, and then I tell the people. You see, I came down a little boy into the bowels of the earth, told to forget my life above. Told there was no life above, not anymore. That now the surface of the earth was as dead as the center of it. Barren. But it wasn't dead, was it? She was always here under the earth, waiting for us, waiting for me. When I found this cave, I found her too. She's the one that told me we can go outside. She doesn't even speak. She doesn't have to.

[43:42] Doctor: Why are you here?

[43:45] Father: I talked to the committee.

[43:47] Doctor: Which committee?

[43:48] Father: The committee for habitable, whatever the fuck. I told them about you, about this. I filed all the paperwork, and they said they'd look into it. I said I had a rash on the tips of my fingers just from touching your daughter's skin, and they'd look into it.

[44:05] Doctor: Well, if they won't do anything, then do you know the story of Chernobyl?

[44:10] Father: What the fuck does that have to do with anything?

[44:13] Doctor: Suddenly a lizard runs across the space. A real life lizard running almost under her feet.

[44:18] Father: Shit. Did you? Was that no, it can't be.

[44:24] Doctor: That it can't be a lizard. That's how would we close to what? The animals after Chernobyl survived. Did you know that?

[44:34] Father: We know that. We know the trees came back and the birds and the deer and the boar, the wild boar.

[44:41] Doctor: God, I've heard about this, what you tell people. It's idiotic.

[44:45] Father: So the boars survived. So what? Those pigs became pests like pigeons. They were everywhere and full of radiation.

[44:54] Doctor: Rotten with it. You don't tell your congregation that, do you? You don't tell them that anyone who ate those pigs got cancer and died. They had to make laws against it. They had to to go into people's homes and confiscate the carcasses. Tell them that story. Tell them just because a pig looks healthy doesn't mean it is.

[45:15] Father: Boar aren't pigs.

[45:18] Doctor: Boars are giant pigs. And I am done entertaining your bullshit. I have a friend at the committee for rehoming endangered children. And I'm telling you, they have to be removed. They will be removed. Your daughter and your baby when it's born. I'm going to show my friend these readings. I'm going to tell her what's happening here. And I don't give a fuck what your religion says. And I don't even believe it's a religion. I think it's a scam. You're conning people, and you know it, and you're putting your children's lives at risk for the fantasy.

[45:53] Father: The fantasy that one day you'll father bashes the doctor's head in with a sledgehammer.

[46:00] Doctor: She falls to the ground.

[46:02] Father: Father bashes, bashes, bashes, bashes.

[46:09] Father: Father keeps bashing. The hits echo through the space, sickening, crunching, wet.

[46:16] Governor: The governor enters from the same entrance as Father. He's also dirty, like he's been digging. He's a shell of a human.

[46:25] Governor: Why aren't you digging?

[46:30] Father: If you didn't find it, then we aren't finished. Come on.

[46:35] Father exits to continue digging.

[46:37] Mother: Mother stands over Doctor's body. Then she looks up at the governor.

[46:45] Mother: Who are you?

[46:49] Governor: I'm sure I know you.

[46:51] Governor: I'm I'm digging.

[46:56] Governor: Up there. Because I'm going home.

[47:04] Mother: He said, home, like when I was little.

[47:12] Governor: It isn't dark. When it rains.

[47:17] Mother: Do you remember rain?

[47:22] Governor: I'm trying to remember. I was little. It went bit, bit, bat, bat.

[47:36] Mother: I remember.

[47:38] Governor: On my face. Do you remember?

[47:40] Mother: Mother looks at him, smiles at him. He hears her for the first time.

[47:48] Governor: Yes. Yes. Of course I will.

[47:53] Governor: He walks over to her. He sits beneath her.

[47:56] Mother: She dips her hands into the doctor's blood. She drips some of it on his face.

[48:01] Mother: Pit pit pat. Yes. Like that.

[48:07] Mother: She keeps dripping. The governor smiles, grateful as a child.

[48:15] Governor: That's it. Exactly that. I can't wait to feel it again.

[48:19] Governor: I can't.

[48:27] Mother: Mother rubs blood tenderly into his cheeks.

[48:32] Scene eight. Just hours later, the three girls are playing in the cave.

[48:37] Girl: Girl and one are playing with rocks on the ground, stacking them.

[48:40] Two: Two is playing with the toy lizard, brushing his spiny back with a little hairbrush.

[48:45] Girl: How big is it?

[48:46] One: What?

[48:46] Girl: The boar.

[48:47] One: Boar, all the wild boar, or the boar.

[48:49] Girl: The boar.

[48:50] One: Big big as what?

[48:51] Girl: A house.

[48:52] One: How big is a house?

[48:53] Girl: I don't know. I've never seen one.

[48:55] One: Is he all alone?

[48:56] Girl: The boar?

[48:57] One: No, there's lots of boar.

[48:59] Girl: And other animals too.

[49:00] One: Can we see them?

[49:01] Girl: I wanna see them.

[49:02] One: They're outside. They're all outside and they're all big, but one is really, really big, and he's the daddy of all the boar.

[49:08] Girl: The daddy of everything on earth. All the animals and mushrooms and sunflowers. That's what mommy says.

[49:14] One: What is he doing?

[49:15] Girl: What is he doing outside?

[49:16] One: Oh, um, running, climbing, eating things.

[49:19] Girl: What things?

[49:20] One: Everything. He'd eat you and me.

[49:22] Girl: And me and you. He'd eat everyone, mommy says.

[49:25] One: He'd eat us, and in his stomach, we'd be all melty and soupy.

[49:29] Girl: And I want to see it.

[49:32] One: The boar.

[49:32] Girl: The big boar. I want to go outside.

[49:34] One: Well, we're gonna go outside. Daddy says tonight.

[49:37] Girl: Tonight?

[49:37] One: Tonight?

[49:37] Girl: Daddy says they're close. So they've been digging all day, all night, and Daddy said tonight they're gonna find it.

[49:43] One: Then we can have mass outside.

[49:45] Girl: Outside. You'll like mass, because daddy always leads it, and Daddy knows everything. Daddy knows all about down here and up there, and he knows stories and songs.

[49:55] One: When the great boar is done, there won't be anyone. Just me.

[49:59] Girl: I'll be floating through the door.

[50:02] One: At the Great Reckoning, I will stand there beckoning.

[50:06] Girl: Touch me, I'll be curled against your heart.

[50:10] One: You know that rhyme too?

[50:12] Girl: Our daddy taught us.

[50:14] One: You mean my daddy.

[50:16] Girl: Mine too.

[50:17] One: No, that's not your daddy, that's mine.

[50:19] Girl: And mine.

[50:20] One: And mine.

[50:20] Girl: No.

[50:21] One: Yes.

[50:21] Girl: And our mommy.

[50:22] One: Mommy is my mommy.

[50:24] Girl: Give me my lizard.

[50:25] One: No.

[50:25] Girl: Mommy's.

[50:26] One: Give it to me.

[50:27] Girl: Mommy says, you have to share.

[50:29] One: Girl pounces on two.

[50:32] Two: They tussle.

[50:33] One: One picks up the lizard. She plays with the lizard as girl and two fight.

[50:37] Girl: Girl and two roll on the ground.

[50:39] One: Then girl gets two by the hair.

[50:41] Girl: Drags her a few feet.

[50:43] One: Drags her and holds her face to the ground.

[50:45] Girl: Waiting.

[50:47] One: Waiting.

[50:48] Girl: Then girl lets go of two at the very moment a plume of acid erupts.

[50:53] One: Shh.

[50:54] Two: Two rolls away just in time, narrowly avoiding being horrifically burned.

[50:58] Girl: The girls pant. They stare at each other, then all three laugh.

[51:04] One: They laugh, then laugh, then laugh, cackling together.

[51:08] Girl: Suddenly they all fall silent at the exact same time and look off stage.

[51:13] Mother: Mother is called to them.

[51:17] Mother: Now it's time.

[51:20] Scene nine.

[51:21] Father: Father faces his congregation, standing up on a rocky outcropping which serves as his pulpit. Hundreds of people are shoved into the space.

[51:30] Father: Father smiles at mother and the girls, who are also elevated above the crowds on their own lower rocky outcroppings.

[51:37] Father: Father raises his arms. The room falls silent.

[51:50] Father: Final hours. Not us. Not the faithful. We gather together here to hold one final mass and pray to our God, the wild boar, that he welcomes us when we return to the earth and inherit our everlasting life.

[52:16] Father: Before we begin, my wife would like to thank you all personally for the love you have shown our family for welcoming us and our message, the message, with open arms.

[52:26] Father: Father steps down from the podium.

[52:29] Mother: Mother climbs up. She stares at the congregation.

[52:45] Mother: Thank you, my darling. I couldn't have put it better myself.

[52:49] Mother: And now, as a special treat, my daughter will excuse me. Daughters will lead our opening prayer.

[52:56] Father: Father steps down from the pulpit.

[52:58] Girl: Girl steps up. One and two follow her. She points, telling them where to stand.

[53:04] Girl: Let us pray.

[53:06] Girl: Oh, wild boar of Chernobyl.

[53:09] Girl: To you we pray.

[53:10] Girl: Oh, wild boar of Chernobyl, take us away.

[53:10] Girl: Away, away, away.

[53:16] Girl: In your giant snout, carry me about.

[53:19] Girl: Swallow me down, down, down, deep to your glowing gut.

[53:24] Girl: I'll play in your acid muck.

[53:26] Girl: Will you dissolve my skin?

[53:28] Girl: Will you absolve my sin?

[53:30] Girl: Oh, wild boar, please, wild boar.

[53:33] Girl: Oh, suddenly the ceiling opens up.

[53:36] Girl: Chunks of rock and dirt tumble down onto the congregation.

[53:39] Governor: The governor appears, his head hanging from the opening, jutting out of the ceiling of the cave.

[53:47] Father: I found it! I have found it! It's here! I'm not strong enough to open it! I can't! I need help! Tell them! Every able-bodied man, woman, child, all of you, we need your hands. Every hand. You need to dig. Dig! A loud, calamitous commotion. The congregation is pushing, shoving. The moment is upon us. Your salvation, the end to your exile. This is the moment we were born for. The congregation climbs up the walls like spiders bursting from an egg sack. Hundreds of people flood the ceiling, crawling into it, joining governor. A plume of acid erupts. It burns a few screaming parishioners to death.

[54:40] Girl: Daddy! Daddy! Are we going outside?

[54:43] Father: Keep digging! Dig! Keep pushing! Give me your bodies! Give everything you have, and everything is yours. Yours. It belongs to you. All glory, all riches. Dig! Dig! God is on the other side of the ceiling! Here! It's here! Here we are! The rock gives. The ceiling peels away. Finally they're out, out into the moonlight, out into screaming, screaming, writhing bodies. No one can breathe. Skin is melting. Hair is burning. Every person, every member of the congregation, the governor, screaming, screaming, everyone is dead. Except our little family. They're perfectly acclimatized. As the screaming of the dying goes silent, one scream remains, cutting through the silence.

[55:45] Mother: It's deafening, heart-rending.

[55:49] Father: Then I hold up the baby. He's beautiful. What should we name him?

[56:04] Mother: Death.

[56:07] Father: Beautiful.

[56:10] Father: I rock the baby. They don't even glance at the carnage around them. They're above ground. They're together. They've reached the promised land. They're Eden. The girls climb on the bodies like a jungle gym, laughing and playing. All is peace and delight. Paradise.

[1:02:01] Mother: Okay, so before we get to the interview portion of this night.

[1:02:08] Iyvon Edebiri: Oh, I just want to breathe. That was the script, the music, everything. But let's give a round of applause to our wonderful cast and musician. Like, oh my god. So good.

[1:02:24] Iyvon Edebiri: Okay, so how do you feel?

[1:02:25] Francesca Pazniokas: Good, that was fun.

[1:02:27] Iyvon Edebiri: Oh my god. When's the last time you heard the play?

[1:02:30] Francesca Pazniokas: Oh man. Um, me personally, two thousand nineteen.

[1:02:36] Iyvon Edebiri: Ooh.

[1:02:37] Francesca Pazniokas: Yeah. So I know that some colleges have done it, but yeah, you haven't really gotten to see it, and so that was really fun.

[1:02:45] Iyvon Edebiri: Oh my god, that's amazing.

[1:02:46] Francesca Pazniokas: That's amazing.

[1:02:47] Iyvon Edebiri: Okay, so let's start. Let's let's start. Um, let's get it started with the question of like what inspired this play outside of you almost quitting playwriting. What inspired like this such a rich, rich play?

[1:03:00] Francesca Pazniokas: Uh, there's two things. The first was um, I was getting a tattoo and the tattoo artist, she's uh from Lithuania, and my family's from Lithuania on my my dad's side, and I have cousins over there in family, and we were talking about like being in Lithuania, and then she said something like, What's crazy about those wild boars with the radiation coming out of Chernobyl? I was like, what? And I was like, tell me more. So she goes as you tattoo my body. Yeah. And I was like entranced, because that's exactly the kind of thing I want to talk about. So I was like, please apparently she has like a cousin who works with uh yeah, the like wildlife over there um in in Ukraine, and then was talking about it going to like the animals running wild in eastern Europe.

[1:03:44] Francesca Pazniokas: So and then the other thing that inspired it was um a friend of mine growing up who it was around the time I came out and she had said to me, like, I love you so much, and I was like, I love you too. And she's like, I'm so sad that when the rapture comes, you're gonna be stuck here when like the earth is on fire and like we're all in heaven. And I was like, excuse me. And I always thought about that for years, because I was like, how could your version of heaven involve people you love being stuck in like it'd be like that in Christian? I went to church like three times a week, girl. I'm a pastor's kid, so I know I live above the church, so I know. I don't know if I will be in the rapture either. So I was like, well, I'm sad too.

[1:04:28] Francesca Pazniokas: Yeah, I'm sad about that too.

[1:04:33] Iyvon Edebiri: Wow, wow, wow, wow. I love church growing up, like I thought it was some great stories, but then once it started to click with me that you're like, yo, these stories are wild.

[1:04:39] Francesca Pazniokas: Yeah.

[1:04:50] Iyvon Edebiri: And so I guess like the next question I had, because what you know beautifully jumped out was like the cult-like religion, the anti, it kind of felt like anti-Doomsday in a way, right? And so, like, what do you I guess when it comes to cult-like or religious fanaticism, doomsday, anti-Dooms Day, that that that kind of sensibility, what do you think, why do you think certain people resonate with with this this fervent, these fervent ideas that may or you know may usually tend to be really out there, but do you think it's more of like a societal circumstance, or do you um, or do you think it's more of an individuality of wanting to be part of something even if that thing is really fucking terrifying?

[1:05:40] Francesca Pazniokas: Oh, that's a really great question. Um I think people are scared, and the world is being alive is terrifying. Having a body is terrifying, everything is so scary, and I'm I'm always scared. No matter what, I feel like a little kid, like I'm still scared of everything, and um and the future is terrifying. I think people really are desperate to have the truth. And I I wanted to give these different like for the doctor, she's like, this is fact, and if I tell you the truth, I'll be safe telling you that. Like, she's really empowered by it, and she's not safe, and right, like the family is so empowered by their truth, everybody's so empowered, like the governor is empowered by like I'm a governor, I'm safe, and I at least that's for me. But a lot of times, like I write, I write because I don't know the answer. So I wasn't trying to give a specific message, like but um that's what I think to answer your question.

[1:06:32] Iyvon Edebiri: Oh well I love it. And then um, how much research did you do? I guess especially after your Lithuanian tattoo artist told you about these, about these wars, but how much research did you do in it about Chernobyl and the explosion and I guess what surprised you the most in like your research?

[1:06:51] Francesca Pazniokas: Oh, I mean I thought a lot about like how the the information was given to people. I mean, if I don't know if anyone's seen Chernobyl the series, which is such a great series. Um and I did obviously like my own research and when I w last the last time I was in Lithuania, I was like, I really want to go over there, but it's pretty far from where my family is.

[1:07:16] Francesca Pazniokas: Um, but what I thought was so fascinating was that they really do have to like go into people's homes and say, like, I know that you think this looks safe, and I know that you caught this in the forest and it looks safe to you, but this is actually this boar is very riddled with radiation. And if you eat this, you're gonna get stomach cancer. And then people are so upset because they're like, you can't come into my house and just take food out of my house, you know, like you can't tell me that. When I can see with my eyes, it's fine, and it's like it's not fine, and that juxtaposition of like government oversight for safety, but also especially in these countries where like the government there is this like fraught like government coming in like um like so ex-Soviet, former Soviet countries do, and now especially with Ukraine and Russia, like this idea of like coming into someone's house and taking what's rightfully theirs.

So I yeah, I thought a lot about it. Um and I I don't want this play to seem like it's making fun of Chernobyl or anything like that. Like I just wanted to pick a place that was like a Mecca Jerusalem. Like for them, that's their site that they worship. Holy site, yeah. Yeah, because why not? Like there was the this was like a a tragedy that marked this like part of the work. And it is, because it really is this beautiful. Like there are like the um forests, if you drive through there, they don't let you stop. Like you can't like take a exit off route through Chernobyl. No, they're like, keep driving, you're in like the exclusion zone. Um, but yeah, I mean it's it looks great around there. Yeah, it is gorgeous, parts of it, you know.

And um, so so one thing that was just so interesting, we you know, briefly talked about it in the green room that um you wrote this play in 2019, and Parsnip, we opened our submissions for season six, which would have happened in 2020 to 2021, at the beginning of the pandemic. I think we opened up our submissions in like February, March, and then like the world went where it went. Yeah, period. And one thing that I remember when we were reading these scripts, and like we were in the middle of this pandemic, going like, what the fuck is going on? I guess we'll read plays and hopefully we'll come back soon, was um, it just felt so like uh prescient in a way, and just like really spooky reading it and going like, is this what our life is gonna be like in a few years?

But I I just want to know, like, what was what was that what has it been like to know that this play has a lot of especially what you touched upon in terms of government interference and people feeling a certain way about that? How has that shaped the play? Or um how have you developed or re-looked or looked at the play in a different way over the last three years after we're, you know, we've been going through our own weird dystopian re human rebirth renewal catastrophic event, etc. etc. It was there was a time where I was like, I can't submit this place it's because it feels like I'm writing a COVID play. And I was like, I swear I wrote this years ago. Actually, it's not a COVID play. Um and nobody wanted to do like think about being trapped inside.

Um, but yeah, I was sort of disturbed. I was like, oh no, how did oh god. Um yeah, I think the idea, like just getting very angry about like um specific like uh religion, political, like I this is like I own your body, I own your thoughts, like that kind of thing. It's like that has played into it since the beginning, and some of the early development of it happened around like Brexit, like in London with like um was a theater company Magstick in London, and they were so upset about Brexit, which I understand, and so that came the committee, all the little committees that are referenced came out of that like development period. Um but a lot of this, like the changes that have happened have really have been around the character and not so much like the idea of this like this rapture family.

Um I think because it remains relevant to too many things in my mind, like yeah, it it it every time I hear about nuclear war being threatened, every time I hear about some like bizarre, like how dare you like tell me because of your religion, you get to do this to me. Like anytime I hear those things, I think like let me, you know, I know it's in this play, and it feels like it's been it's been there the whole time because unfortunately these things don't go away and they just breed more and more and more. So I hope that it becomes like a really irrelevant play soon. Soon. No, really like please become irrelevant. Exactly. That would be great.

[1:12:08] Iyvon Edebiri: Okay, so we're gonna start to wrap up. And I have a last couple of questions for you. So the season six is all um queer playwrights, queer writers. Um, and so we want to ask, what does queerness mean to you personally, artistically, privately, publicly, however you take it.

[1:12:30] Francesca Pazniokas: When I was first thinking, like, oh gosh, like coming into, you know, as you're a little a little kid and you're starting to realize who you are. The messaging I always got was being queer was being a really lonely experience. You're gonna lose your friends, your jobs gonna be at stake, like your dreams, everything, like your community. Like, do you really want to be that ostracized and lonely? And instead, it's just it's been like stepping into this family into this community and this rich like warmth with history and with support. And my queer families are like they are they're real families. Like, I I feel so blessed, and I wish I could tell my like little self, like no, you're not if if you lose something, you're you're gaining so much. You really are.

[1:13:18] Iyvon Edebiri: Beautiful. Last question, easiest one. What did you have for breakfast this morning?

[1:13:25] Francesca Pazniokas: I had a bodega grilled cheese.

[1:13:27] Iyvon Edebiri: Fuck yes!

[1:13:29] Francesca Pazniokas: And I'm not gonna do it. Everyone went. Y'all imagine that yeah, y'all know that tastes good. Nice. It was very greasy, and I was very happy.

[1:13:36] Iyvon Edebiri: Yes, the greasier the better. Oh, I love that. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Francis so much. It was so much fun. Thank you, thank you.

[1:13:47] Iyvon Edebiri: Um, okay, so we are we're gonna start wrapping up our episode tonight. And I just have some thank yous for all of our artistic collaborators who are part of this episode. So, again to our wonderful cast tonight Alexandra Curran, Brian Bach, Dante John Felix, Alyssa Block, Janice Amaya, and Laura Hetherington. Thank you to our director Felicia Lobo. Thank you. And our musician tonight is Ray McGale. The wild boar of Chernobyl was written by Francesca Pazniokas. And thank you to our sound engineer, Fernando Castillo. And thank you to our TPS team and producer Business Lunch Productions. Business Lunch Productions is a leading creative agency based in New York City. And thanks to the Margo Donald Theater at the Entertainment Community Fun Arts Center for having us in their space in downtown Brooklyn.

And before we get to hear our last song from Ray to close the night, we want to remind you all to please follow us on Facebook and Instagram at the Parsnipship NY. You can help TPS reach new audiences by sharing your experience and favorite episodes across social media. Just make sure to use hashtag the Parsnipship. You can listen to all of our past seasons on iTunes, Spotify, Broadway Podcast Network, and anywhere you hear podcasts. Next month, we will have two live recordings. New plays, new music, this is how we hear theater.