What we know from the Bible about Lot’s wife is that she looked back at the city of Sodom, even though she was forbidden to do so, and became a pillar of salt. Much more happens in Genesis 19 – a mob of men from Sodom threaten to “know” (rape?) two angels sent by the Lord; the angels blind them all and then destroy both Sodom and Gomorrah, allowing Lot to escape; Lot’s two daughters get Lot drunk and have sex with him to bear him children – but that’s all we hear about Lot’s wife; we don’t even learn her name.
Theatre artist Dan Daly gives this biblical figure a distinctly new context: one that is lyrical, imaginative, pointed – and very different.
“The Story of Lot’s Wife” is first and foremost an art installation. Or perhaps first and foremost a poem. Or perhaps ultimately a radical act of queerness. There are no actors. But perhaps every audience member becomes a character. We are pilgrims on a journey to transform what is in many ways an ugly story from scripture into something secular and sublime.
One viewer at a time enters the exhibition through a beaded curtain and walks past nine objects arranged like shrines against a backdrop of blue velvet. The experience lasts about fifteen minutes. Daly, who is sitting outside, has handed us a booklet in which each object is described as a moment, briefly explained and then expanded upon. Occasionally there is a suggestion of a modest activity we can do that feels like rituals.
The first moment of the installation shows a group of four salt shakers which, we are told, “contain 250 grams of salt, the approximate amount in each of our bodies.”
The booklet then goes on to explain the history and uses of salt, how it is often used in rituals, but also that it is “rooted in freedom struggles around the world.” Gandhi, for example, led his people to the sea to make salt, defying the British colonial empire’s monopoly on salt production in India.
This first section ends with the words: “Salt is a part of us. Our bodies and our culture. We need it and take it for granted. And you, Lot’s wife, are now made of that stuff.”
It is only in the second part that the real message of this unusual play becomes clear. The object is a vessel of water. The explanation: “This water was collected in San Francisco Bay, where salt is still mined today and on whose shores lies one of the largest queer communities in America.”
The Story of Lot’s Wife is a response to the hateful use of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as a justification for homophobia. It’s cleverly done, but not complacent.
Daly works primarily as a set designer, specializing in immersive theater. His design for Tammany Hall blew me away. He transformed the Soho Playhouse into a bustling political clubhouse with fifteen separate performance spaces, most of which theatergoers had never seen before or knew existed—backstage, on the roof, in an attic, in an office, in a closet, in a makeshift dressing room, up a rickety staircase.
“The Story of Lot’s Wife” is simpler, calmer in structure, more delicate – and breathtaking in its effect.
The story of Lot’s wife
Cell Theater until 25 August
Running time: 15 minutes
Tickets: sliding scale from $10
by Dan Daly and Ofo Theater
Lighting design by Zoe Griffith
Sound design by Julian Singer-Corbin
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