Freely inspired by Greek tragedies and myths, Ellen McLaughlin’s playwriting engages with resonantly compelling stories from women coping with dramatic  forms of adversity across many different eras.

Imaginatively reminiscent of Caryl Churchill’s time-bending first scene from “Top Girls”, RUNAWAYS offers vividly potent testimony from young women fleeing episodes of patriarchal oppression. 

CONVERSATIONS AT THE RETURN OF SPRING is a perceptively entertaining take on the relationship between the goddess of agriculture Demeter, and her banished daughter Persephone, as, in widely varying eras and locales, they reunite to confront the environmental degradation of planet Earth by human beings.

In both plays, McLaughlin artfully fuses the poetic with the visceral, offering actors and audiences theatrically challenging experiences.