Anna Bella Eema

Described as "a ghost story for three bodies with three voices," Anna Bella Eema blurs the line between the real and the imaginary. The format is stark and simple. Three women sit in chairs and speak their stories, sometimes alternating monologues, sometimes as dialogue. They punctuate the action using the many props on the folding TV tables set out before each one. Periodically, they sing a capella incantations, laments, primal cries - nothing like conventional song.

Within a harsh Samuel Beckett universe, D'Amour deftly mines the magic realism vein. Tales of wise talking foxes and such lend a Little Prince vibe. The line "I was visited by a werewolf once" is presented as matter-of-factly as "I was visited by a social worker once." D'Amour has a way with the psychologically telling line, as when Anna Bella expresses anger with her mom: "Even though I'm only 10, she fills me with the rage of a powerless middle-aged man."