NPX Weekly Round-Up: Lily Ineffable by Audrey Lang

A compelling use of myth in a modern day story, and three other plays I'm interested in this week.

This week I picked up a play I’ve been meaning to read for a really long time— Lily Ineffable by Audrey Lang. This play deals with some hard topics, mainly sexual assault of a minor, so it was one I felt like I had to be in the right headspace to read. I highly recommend doing the same if you choose to read this work (and if you can, I really think you should).

I mainly wanted to read this play because I know the playwright is awesome, and I love the use of myth in modern day stories. This play takes a myth that I myself have written about, that of Lilith, and uses it to talk about sexual assault in an effective way.

If you’re unfamiliar with the myth, let me give you the TLDR: Lilith is Adam’s first wife before Eve. However, when it came to consummating their marriage, Lilith refused to lie beneath Adam. After this fight she said the “ineffable name” and flew away. The ineffable name is interpreted to mean the true name of god, which holds power in a lot of religions. Lilith is chased by three angels who try to bring her back, but they fail. Because of this, she is considered to be a witch and a demon, specifically haunting pregnant women and harming children. However, a lot of artists (mainly femme identifying) have interpreted this myth differently— usually they interpret it as Adam sexually assaulting Lilith, and therefore seeing Lilith as a protector of victims instead of a demon.

Before I get too deep into it, here is the official summary of Lily Ineffable from NPX:

In the last two weeks of her run in the kids' ensemble of "Matilda," Lily makes the amulet of the Jewish mythological figure Lilith for a social studies project. She feels a kinship with Lilith that she can't explain to her friends, her sister, or her sister's girlfriend--a kinship she doesn't understand herself until she learns that Adam, the adult cast member she used to have a crush on, is coming back to "Matilda" as an emergency sub.

Once again, content warnings here for sexual assault in general. If you’re not up to reading that today, I totally understand and hope to see you again for next week’s post.

This play starts out with a conversation between Lily and Lilith— that’s right, the actual, mythical Lilith. It turns out that Lilith has been haunting Lily for a while, and Lily is unsure why. While she does express frustration and even a little fear about this to Lilith, ultimately it seems that Lily feels a deep connection to her. Starting out in media res like this is a really good choice for this play in my opinion. It sets up the mystery that we are seeing unfold before us throughout the story: that of Lily’s connection to Lilith. Why does this mythical character follow Lily, and why is Lily morbidly drawn to Lilith’s story?

A big thing I learned from reading this play was how to think about an opening scene. We want to hook our readers and/or watchers in right away, so we need to present them with something that makes them ask a question— and then answer that question with the rest of the play. Something I want to do when editing (or starting) a play now, is think about that: what is the question I want my audience to be asking themselves after experiencing the first scene? How does that question get answered by the play?

Continuing on, I really loved how the myth of Lilith was used as a mirror to the experiences that Lily was having in the present moment of the show. ‘Lily’, of course, is a derivative of ‘Lilith’, and the play specifies that the actor playing Lilith should bear a striking resemblance to the actor playing Lily. There is a clear parallel drawn between them via these two facts. Add on to that that the man who assaulted Lily is named Adam, and we have a very distinct picture being shown to us by the playwright— that Lilith and Lily are perhaps, in fact, the same.

I think this play definitely toes the line between using this myth as a device and completely retelling the myth in a modern lens. In some ways, it does both. Drawing a connection between the myth and this modern issue as well as utilizing important names and phrases from the original myth gives us the feeling that both can exist at the same time— this modern retelling and the original story all at once. There’s something quite compelling about this. It works for the subject matter and themes of the play, that femmes especially should look out for their younger counterparts, that we should try to end the cycle of violence.

Myth and legend can be really useful devices in modern storytelling. I think this play has shown that there are multiple ways of using them, and that the main message of the work should guide that usage.

Here is my official recommendation of Lily Ineffable on NPX:

A beautiful usage of myth to discuss important and relevant issues of the modern day. I absolutely adored the relationship between Lily and Lilith-- how Lilith's story helps Lily to process her own. It was lovely to see depicted older femmes supporting and listening to younger ones through something as unfortunately common and traumatic as Lily's experience. The playwright convincingly writes a young girl processing a difficult and awful experience without "trauma dumping". As a femme, this play felt really healing.

I hope you all get a chance to read this wonderful work.

Other works I’ve been drawn to (or reading) this week on NPX:

• My Own Darling Boy by Kaylin Jones

• Cyrano On the Moon by Monica Cross

• Bouquet of Violets by Debra A. Cole

Want me to review any of these plays? Have a play or a book you want me to read? Let me know by replying to this email!

Happy reading!

~Brynn