‘Confabulation’ explores trauma, personal growth and queer identity

The Strides Collective will present the world premiere of “Confabulation,” a play about trauma, the past, and reclaiming control of one’s life, from Oct. 10-20 at the Arden Theatre Company’s Hamilton Family Arts Center. Written by Matt Shvyrkov and directed by The Strides Collective’s founding artistic director Jonathan Edmondson, the play follows protagonist Caroline and her support group as they explore past life regression therapy.

“What we’re very much watching…is someone struggling with the idea that suddenly they are the author of their own lives, that what their mother has said about them doesn’t matter, what their ex-partners or former friends have said about them doesn’t matter, what they have been told by society they are is not the person they have to be,” Shvyrkov said.

The play is a “dramedy,” intended to bring levity to traumatic or difficult topics such as abusive childhoods, breakups, and complex family and friend dynamics.

“Balancing that darkness with the humor has been a major challenge in trying to get the tone of the play right because I want to talk about trauma, and I want to talk about it honestly, and I want to talk about it authentically, but I don’t want to do it in such a way that seems irreverent to people who have encountered domestic abuse or violence or neglect,” Shvyrkov said.

This desire to strike the right balance was also informed by Shvyrkov’s own experiences with the theater.

“There’s so much theater in the world right now that talks about those things in such a dark and depressing way that it makes me sometimes scared to go to a theater because if I’m having a good day, I don’t necessarily want to sit through some of the darkest things that humanity has to offer on stage in front of me performed live,” Shvyrkov said. “But I would enjoy having those types of things with a flavor that makes it palatable, and I think that comedy, if you can find it in those situations, resonates with people on a different level.”

“I think if you are able to lighten things up with humor, it sticks with people in a way that doesn’t feel intrusive,” Shvyrkov added. “And if it doesn’t feel intrusive, they can think about it more casually. And if they think about it more casually, they can think about it more objectively. And I think that was my ultimate goal with the play.”

“Confabulation” has a number of themes in addition to trauma and autonomy, among them masking and found family.

“The past life regression support group kind of mimics the idea of found queer family, I think, because all of these people think that there is something about them that is different from everybody else,” Shvyrkov said. “They feel like they have no one they can lean on, so what they’ve done is they found a very small group of people who kind of have the same experiences that they have had.”

Queerness is also paramount in the play, extending beyond solely the theme of found family. Initially, Shvyrkov used queerness as the organizing principle of “Confabulation,” and he specifically worked to create something audiences wouldn’t expect of a queer story.

For Shvyrkov, this approach was born out of a need he identified in queer theater.

“Queerness slips into the narrative in ways that I think are a little more subtle than what you might expect from what is labeled as a queer play,” he said, adding that he was “a little bit exhausted” from seeing the same narratives, such as coming out stories or love stories, repeatedly. “I like the idea of playing with what queerness actually means, and what the idea of queerness actually means is, sometimes you mask yourself. It means that, sometimes, you don’t know where you fit in.”

Edmondson had a very similar perspective on the way queerness informed the story of “Confabulation.”

“[As a director] I would be looking for queer plays, and the same five would always pop up, you know, the ones that are most historically relevant, the ones that have won a bunch of awards, the ones that are usually set in like the ’90s,” Edmondson said. “I was really trying to find queer plays that were set in the current day. And they absolutely exist, but they’re not readily available to license, and that got me really frustrated.”

It is in part for this reason that the Strides Collective solely produces LGBTQ+ works and focuses on world premiere plays.

“Ever since we started producing work and having these larger artistic conversations about what is queer theater, reading plays, having conversations with artists, we internally in the Strides Collective have really expanded what queer theater means as a definition or what fits into the box of what we’re looking for,” Edmondson said.

Edmondson also commented on the ways this unique approach in “Confabulation” avoided some common potential pitfalls of queer storytelling.

“Nobody’s trauma in the show or narrative drama stems from their sexuality or their gender,” he said. “There’s just queerness throughout, and sometimes it pops out for some people, sometimes it doesn’t, but it isn’t the main focus all the time, which I think is really exciting writing.”

Journee Lutz, who plays Caroline, particularly highlighted how this weaving of identity positively shaped their character and the larger play. 

“It also just opens up so many pockets of relationships,” Lutz said. “I think Matt does this excellent job of showing you every single raw part of what relationships can be as queer people. The breakups of it, or the arguments, or just the yearning and the pining. It’s just not something you see often without, again, it being this huge thing of like ‘this is taboo’ or ‘this is not supposed to be.’”

Edmondson highlighted the play’s deeper themes about personal growth.

“This play really homes in on the minutiae and the nuance of the small step to make a crack in fixing, healing, growing, etc.,” Edmondson said. “And that’s not necessarily a message that is always hopeful to hear because sometimes you want that quick fix, you want to go to therapy and then the next day be like, ‘I’m fixed, I’m healed.’”

“I think Matt really holds a mirror up to that idea to be like, ‘Sorry, the world doesn’t work that way, and we all know it,’” Edmondson added. “And that can be tough to hear. But I think it’s necessary because ultimately, buried underneath it is a message of hope, which is that you will move forward, and you will be OK. It just is going to take a lot of work and a lot of time, but it’s worth investing in yourself, I think, and finding the help that you need.”

Shvyrkov shared Edmondson’s sentiments, explaining that he hopes the audience will “leave feeling like they have permission to forgive what they have had to do to live as a person in this world and forgive the people they used to be.”

Lutz summarized the play by stating that “The road is never going to be finished.”

“It will always be getting paved as you’re walking along it, and I think that’s the journey to healing,” Lutz said. “I hope [the audience] can take away that it’s OK that it’s not done yet.”

The Strides Collective presents “Confabulation” Oct. 10-20 at the Arden Theatre Company’s Hamilton Family Arts Center, 62 N 2nd Street. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit stridescollective.com.