Gestating Baby Volume 9: Rawya El Chab & Adin Lenahan

Gestating Baby is a semi-regular series of split bill performances that presents new and unpredictable works across the spectrum of theatrical performing arts. It began in 2013 at The Silent Barn and is now revived at The Brick in Brooklyn, NY.

Featuring:

Crossing the Water

Crossing the Water is a solo performance written and performed by Rawya El Chab that weaves together Lebanon’s turbulent history from the 1978 occupation through the 1982 invasion of Beirut. Through interviews with resistance fighters and family members, El Chab reconstructs history from marginalized perspectives, crafting a layered narrative that explores three distinct yet interconnected journeys across water. The performance draws poetic parallels between desperate immigrants crossing seas in search of safety, armies traversing borders to occupy foreign lands, and the mythological crossing of the river Styx into the underworld. By intertwining these narratives, El Chab creates a powerful meditation on displacement, invasion, and mortality, revealing how personal and political histories ripple through generations. The piece challenges audiences to consider the profound implications of crossing boundaries—whether driven by survival, power, or fate.

By Rawya El Chab
Directed by Jesse Freedman
Set and projection design by Ettie Pin
Music Composition & Sound Design by Omar Dewachi
Image Credit Carine Zahabi @carine_zahabi

@rawyaelchab

Running time: 30 minutes

-AND-

Doom Scroll

Doom Scroll borrows the deliciousness and compulsivity of TikTok to create theatrical brain rot. An endless parade of TikTokers ranging from Disney Adults and viral preachers to true crime enthusiasts and ASMR Reiki practitioners, even Nicole Kidman, all speak in no more than three minute intervals, converging for a tale of extremism, celebrity worship, the perverse, and the stupid.

Written and Performed by Adin Lenahan
Directed by Dmitri Barcomi

@adinlendahand @dmx.barcomi

Running time: 40 minutes