LA Theatre Works The Relativity Series: What You Are Now (Part 3)
Mar 24, 2023
Pia, a neuroscientist studying how to alter traumatic memory, drives the story. Chantria, Siobhan, and Durrani appear as family and community figures caught between past horrors and present survival. Evan is a lab colleague whose personal history intersects with Pia’s work. They explore trauma, cultural memory, displacement, and the ethics of changing what we remember.
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Childhood Freeze That Taught Emotional Control
- Evan's childhood memory of his mother freezing shaped lifelong emotional caution.
- He learned to suppress excitement after assuming her immobility meant anger, teaching himself to stay composed to avoid punishment.
Meditation Feels Like Avoidance For Some Trauma Survivors
- Chantria rejects Buddhist-style present-focused coping as insufficient for trauma survivors.
- She argues meditation that teaches acceptance can feel like avoiding responsibility for systemic harms that caused suffering.
Music Triggers Wartime Nightmares
- Pia recounts her mother's nightmares and sensitivity to music that triggers wartime memories.
- The sound of music reminds her mother of bombs and mass murder from the Khmer Rouge era, causing intense distress.