How do you win when the deck is stacked against you? And in times like these, what was it your mother used to say? Does he really expect you to listen while he is going on about snails? Are you selfish?

A workshop showing of Parsley was staged as part of IRT Theater's 3B Residency series in April 2025. Performed in English and Spanish, Parsley is a snapshot of the same two people, C & X, across three distinct points in history; then, before, & ago. Each era is different – some have corsets while others boast modern amenities – but for C nothing much changes. Her mother is still dead. Her sisters, gone or run off. Her brother, away. Her overbearing ‘over-caffinated mall-cop’ type uncle, still imminent. And as always X is here, needing. Always he needs more of her than she wants to give; his baby, her house, the empire.

"X – Te amo realmente. Te amo realmente and I want a baby. ¿En qué momento esas dos cosas dejaron de ir de la mano?”

Is that really too much to ask? He didn’t choose to be this either but now that we’re here, here we are. Where else is there to go?

The space between the hope of expectation and the disappointment of reality creates a chasm between them which they try desperately to cross. As they navigate social constraints against their own ambitions, they exhaust the options of custom and end up wrecked and ruined.

Well, she does. He’ll be fine.

Written by Caitlin George & directed by Jonathan Taikina Taylor, Parsley is a dissection of the theatrical forms and stories we were taught was all of history. We dig through the graveyard of the fallen women towards forgotten knowns, greedy Generals, and our mothers’ fury. Working backwards we scrape off the plaque of canon to exhume what power is in a woman’s herb.

“C – My mother always used to tell me that parsley is a woman’s herb. Not the plant, that la hierba era para las mujeres. I’ve no idea what that means.”

C Violeta Picayo*
X Juan Diego Bonilla
FURIES Akiko Aizawa*

Scenographer Jackie Fox
Stage Manager Alison Greene
Videographer Vaishanavi Raul