Bitter Water Opera

Polek’s (Imaginary Museums: Stories) trip through an existential crisis pulls listeners in from the beginning. The story begins as film studies professor Gia, spiritually untethered after a breakup, tries to find her center. Amid her depression, she comes across the story of Marta Becket, a professional ballet dancer who, in 1967, came across an abandoned opera house in Death Valley on the way to a performance. She rented the opera house, fixed it up, and painted an audience onto the seats. She spent the next 50 years performing for tourists or sometimes just for the audience she had painted. Gia writes a letter to Marta, after which Marta mysteriously appears at Gia’s house, igniting a transformative journey of healing and self-discovery. Alex Picard speaks Gia’s words with clarity and precision, channeling her sense of disembodiment as she goes through the motions, eventually traveling to Marta’s Amargosa Opera House. Picard’s narration, alternating between breathy and uncertain and assertive, captures a woman in flux and invites readers to wonder about the purpose of life and art.