Starring Iryna Scarola
Wednesday, November 19, 2025 at 7:00 pm
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The Game to Play is a haunting solo performance about a mother who once imagined herself holding the whole universe — only to face the unbearable reality of losing her child in war.
Through the eyes of Olga, the play moves between the vast and the intimate: from cosmic creation, light and darkness, to the raw silence of an empty bundle rocked in her arms. With each fragment of poetry, each breath of lullaby, she searches for meaning inside the game of life — a game where grief is the rule no one chooses, yet every human must play.
Blending metaphysical imagery with the most human of losses, The Game to Play becomes more than a play. It is ritual, remembrance, and invocation. At its heart lies a lullaby — sung in Ukrainian — an intimate thread that binds mother to child, and echoes the universal grief carried by families across all wars.
Written and performed by Ukrainian-born actress and playwright Iryna Scarola, The Game to Play is adapted from her award-winning play Let’s Play the Game, which received “Best Short Production” at the 2025 New York Theater Festival.
At United Solo Festival, Olga’s story becomes every mother’s story — a cry of love that transcends loss, carrying both the weight of the cosmos and the silence of an empty cradle.
Director – Brooke Tyler Benson
