REDCAT, 631 W 2ND ST, LOS ANGELES, CA 90012

Adoration follows Simon, an orphaned high school student, as he grapples with his family history, racism, and intolerance in our digital age, in an adaptation of Atom Egoyan’s 2008 film. As part of a dramatic writing exercise, Simon’s teacher encourages him to appropriate details from a historical terrorist attack as an event perpetrated by his parents. When his story goes viral, Simon uses the hysteria within his community and on the internet to highlight how hate is a learned behavior, and the impact of hate on society. The fictional and actual circumstances of the loss of Simon’s family are revealed in fragments, only fitting together with the final revelation that the prejudices of Simon’s maternal grandfather led to his parents’ deaths. Presented in collaboration with LA Opera and Beth Morrison Projects, this piercing contemporary opera tells two simultaneous narratives—a fictional story of violence and betrayal juxtaposed with real experience of family strife and the rejection of the other.