Severed

Dark, disturbing, deft, irreverent, and revelatory, Ignacio Lopez’s monologue is at once a coming-of-age story, a horror story, and a highly theatrical experiment in radical empathy. Weaving together two voices-that of Ignacio himself as he narrates the painful process of coming out in a strictly Catholic family, and that of Jeffrey Dahmer, speaking in the wake of his arrest for the rape, murder, and dismemberment of 17 people-Severed asks: where do we draw the line between human and monster, severing, as we do so, the possibility of empathy, forgiveness, and understanding? What happens when we see ourselves reflected in the monster’s eye?