Irvinville is a daring new play following a town besieged by a rampaging circus elephant, and the generational trauma resulting from its demise. Weaving the fantastic seamlessly within a collage of our nation’s greatest blunders, the line between history and legend is blurred. Using fireside storytelling traditions, Irvinville becomes a modern American myth of ridiculous proportions, daring the audience to question their complicity in their own destruction.

    Written and performed by Lucius Robinson and Kevin Duvall, and using no technical elements whatsoever, Irvinville explores how we use performance to reflect upon our shared past, and reveal how we become the stories we tell.  Irvinville will be performed at The Basement, at 300 E Broad Street, Richmond Virginia, November 10-11 and 17-18

    With nothing more than themselves, Robinson and Duvall share a story spanning several decades and over a dozen characters. At the center is Jaxson Sallow, a decrepit old boy, and the only person left in Irvinville, tasked with maintaining the archaic machinery which powered this once great town; and Mary, the circus elephant responsible for triggering Irvinville’s slow, hard decline. Together they make flesh the terrible tragedy of the “Evening of the Tusk Moon,” when Mary revolts at the circus, the ensuing “Terrorphant Siege,” where Irvinville faces the constant threat of the elephant in the woods, and Mary’s Trial when she is convicted before the entire town. It is her story that entangles Irvinville into the hearts of a nation, but she brings the town to ruin all the same. Through a sculpted whirlwind of characters, stories, memories, and lies, the truth of this place is gradually revealed: violence is easy; more than easy, it is natural.