created by Audrey Lane
performed by Audrey Lane and Alec Publicover; music by Alec Publicover
performed by Audrey Lane and Alec Publicover; music by Alec Publicover
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You come from there and I come from here. Yet, don’t we both come from somewhere? Yes, that’s right, we both come from a place. A place. And while our two names sound different, they are both made up of sounds. From our voice boxes. A larynx all the same. Our mouths shape the sound and out pops an “ah” instead of an “o”. And so, we are put into a box, filed by a system created to “simplify”. But we can’t simplify human beings. I am everyone I have ever met. So are you. Yet we are none of them at all. I am Audrey. But I am not a name. And you are not the sounds that make up your name. Not a noun. An assortment of atoms, but that doesn’t suffice. I would like you to come with me and be the question mark at the end of the story. Because how can just one story suffice for an infinity of moments?
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Written by Emma Grasso Levine, Directed by Audrey Lane
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Code Words uplifts the true stories of the ingenious, brave women who broke code during WWII. Under an oath of silence, these women concealed their legacies for over 70 years, while powerful men took credit for their discoveries.Our play centers on Ann, Gertrude, Dorothy, and Crow, codebreakers whose close, complex connection to each other drew us in. The play reckons with the forced secrecy of Ann and Gertrude’s romantic relationship due to 1940s discrimination against queer folks, and the risk that being true to their identities posed to their work and survival.
The codebreaking facility was racially segregated, and African-American codebreakers’ contributions were purposefully erased from the archives. We wrestled with the question: how could we move beyond creating a piece that only represented the white-skewed records? We cast the show on the basis of the actors’ character portrayals and their connections to the story, while holding space for ongoing conversations about race in rehearsals. Our resulting cast includes queer and straight womxn of color, as well as white, Jewish actors. To put our casting choice in conversation with the text, we devised an ending that acknowledges our actors’ personal identities. In the epilogue, we honor the four women that our characters are named after, recognize our actors who tell their stories today (a radical act in the face of a history that prevented them from doing so), and hold space for those whose names we might never know. |
Our musicians wrote original songs that warp 1940s music, highlighting toxic, gendered power dynamics. Their behind-the-scenes work in an onstage, screened-off radio booth -- providing news updates, playing music, controlling the play’s omniscient male voice -- represents the women codebreakers’ uncredited labor. Our choreographer is using abstracted movement to illustrate the frustration, persistence, and relationship dynamics that determined the success of the team. |
a play by Audrey Lane
A sneak peek of the staged reading (dir: Sam McHale) at Playwrights Horizons downtown:
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An old Brooklynite with a blood pressure problem signs up for Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest after receiving a fortune from Zoltar. |
