Nate Briggs

A Paper Cocoon: A Play in Two Acts Nate Briggs

A dramatic examination of the brutal impact of Stalinist rule in a play of two acts. On the eve of his departure from the USSR, an American scholar visiting the state library of a Soviet poet - a now-famous poet "missing" since the 1930s - is approached by a cleaning woman who claims to be the poet's widow. She seems to know everything that she should know, and her conversation seems credible. And yet: she is supposed to be dead. Dead 30 years before. If her claim is true, then the scholar's success in academia is guaranteed. If she is lying, and he believes her, he will be branded a fool. And time on his visa is running out....