The Water Cycle

Brett Alan Dewing's trilogy of one-act plays took shape over the course of twenty years. Combined into one diverse dramatic work, The Water Cycle brings out common themes and imagery to create a compelling glimpse of the forces that shape life on Earth.

On the simplest level, the title of the work is a description: a cycle of plays based around mythic images of water. As a recognizable phrase, however, it also brings up thoughts of precipitation, evaporation, and condensation. Together, these three processes sustain life on this planet through a flow of death and rebirth, a changing of form but not of substance. Likewise, these three short plays explore death, the illusion of change, and the complex workings of any shifting whole.

Fittingly, the circle is a key symbol for understanding this work, not only signaling the perpetuity of the cycle but also the idea of the sacred circle. The creation of any safe space immediately identifies unsafe spaces. Any circle of fellowship creates the idea of the Other, of those outside of the circle. Any acknowledgement of an Us supposes a Them. Every wall has an inside and an outside.

Dewing looks at these concepts - and many others - as he seeks to craft a State of the Union address for the Western Church, drawing from the traditions of Theatre of the Absurd, Magic Realism, and Symbolist Drama. The result is an evening of theatre that is mysteriously compelling, humorous, and at times frightening.