The Feast of the Hungry Ghosts, a full-length play

You meet them everywhere.
​In the park, the subway, the street corner.
They brush past you, but their eyes do not meet yours.
Their voice sounds like dust.
Their lips are too red or too pale
Their mouths open too wide or not at all.
There they are, the hungry ghosts, all around us.
​They are you and me.

In Buddhist cosmology, the hungry ghost has a mouth the size of a needle's eye and a stomach the size of a mountain, serving as a metaphor for insatiability and addiction, from substance abuse to consumerism to the plundering of the environment.

The Feast of the Hungry Ghosts explores addiction on individual, archetypal, and cultural levels. While it focuses on the struggles of seven female protagonists, the ultimate hungry ghost of the play is the Earth herself, who rises up in storms, fires, and floods, starved as she is for human attention and care. The performance summons the hungry ghosts to rise out of our unconscious to voice their complaints and grievances. The play culminates in an act of expiation - a symbolic feast - leading its participants towards the restoration of their bond with each other and with the living Earth.