THE CITY & THE CITY

based on the novel by China Miéville

adapted by Christopher Walsh

ILLINOIS THEATRE

The KRANNERT CENTER for the PERFORMING ARTS

COLWELL PLAYHOUSE

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

2026

 

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.”

| ITALO CALVINO, Invisible Cities

 

The East European twin city-states of Besźel and Ul Qoma occupy much of the same geographical space, but are perceived as two different places. They each have their own languages and cultures, and their citizens must “unsee” - consciously erase from their mind - the people, buildings, sounds of the other city, even if they are right next to them. Breaking this rule - “breaching” - is a crime worse than murder, enforced by an unseeable secret power known as Breach.

One morning, the dead body of Mahalia Geary, an American Ph. D. student living in Ul Qoma, is found Besźel. Inspector Tyador Borlú of Besźel’s Extreme Crime Squad investigates her murder, and her breach. Uncovering Mahalia’s secrets enmeshes Borlú in an underworld of warring factions, political conspiracy, and mythical history, pulling him deeper and deeper into the mysteries that lie between the city and the city.

 
 
 
 

CAST

Track 1: BORLÚ | Imran Rizvi

Track 2: CORWI | Harmony Johnson

Track 3: DHATT | Angela Tomaso

Track 4: MR. GEARY, ASHIL | Jake Majerczyk

Track 5: MRS. GEARY, NANCY | Ari Warner

Track 6: NAUSTIN, BURIC | Luca Baron

Track 7: SHUKMAN, SYEDR, BOWDEN | Chris Ramshaw

Track 8: JARIS, YORJAVIC, SAMUN | Grace Herbst

Track 9: DRODIN, AIKAM | Mihir Apte

Track 10: YOLANDA, RAINA | Hayley Alexander

Track 11: ELEVEN, u/s Corwi, Mrs. Geary, Nancy | Aliyah Joshua

Track 12: TWELVE, u/s Dhatt, Yolanda, Raina | Zoë Van Krey

MAHALIA | Abby Weber

FRONTLINE

DIRECTOR | Jordan Coughtry*

DRAMATURG | Anne Koloczkowski-Magee

INTIMACY & FIGHT DIRECTOR | Zev Steinrock

VOICE COACH | Marie Ramirez Downing

STAGEMANAGEMENT

STAGE MANAGER | Lauren Boesch

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS | Sabrina Fellinger, Shea Manning

DESIGN

SCENIC DESIGNER | Avery Tang

COSTUME DESIGNER | Amelia Walz

LIGHTING DESIGNER | Robert Perry

SOUND DESIGNER | Grace Aumiller

MEDIA DESIGNER | John Boesche

ASSISTANT SCENIC DESIGNER | Tyler Findley

ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNERS | Devin Findlay, Maggie Harper

ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNER | Cameron L. Strandin

ASSISTANT SOUND DESIGNER | Ryan Olsen

PRODUCTION

PRODUCTION MANAGER | Terri Ciofalo

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR | Jack Filpi

PROPERTIES MANAGER | Taylor Tousignant

PROJECTIONS SUPERVISOR | Alec LaBau

HAIR & MAKEUP SUPERVISOR | Paige Stewart-Rankins

HAIR & MAKEUP COORDINATOR | Tiffany E Adams

COSTUME CRAFTS | Chantel Renee

ASSISTANTS TO THE DIRECTOR | Layla Eygabroad, Imran Rizvi

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT & WEAPONS CAPTAIN | Bry Bell

SM CALLING SUB | Hadas Goldberg

ASSISTANT PRODUCTION MANAGER | Maxwell G. Allen

HEAD ELECTRICIAN | Resa Fuller

MEDIA ENGINEER | Alec Labau

AUDIO ENGINEER | Noah McLeod

SCENIC CHARGE | Christina Rainwater

SCENICARTISTS

Jordan Couper

Varonica Moralli De Andrade

Mena Perkins

Fallon Podrazic

Emery Smith

Avery Tang

FEET ON THEGROUND

LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR | Lauren Merrifield

SOUND BOAR OPERATOR | Anna Reed

MEDIA BOARD OPERATOR | Frank Estrada

MOTION VIDEO SFX | Erin Pleake

DECKCREW

Isabella Boudreaux

Sebastian Gould

Yan Qi

Logan Young

WARDROBE SUPERVISOR | Devin Findlay

WARDROBECREW

Nicole Burris

Aiden Garland-Sutter

Amelia Schmidt

Alyssa Williams

HAIR & MAKEUP CREW | Ariah Lee, Scarlet Wu

PHOTOGRAPHY |Darrell Hoemann, Olga Maslova, Avery Tang

* Denotes member of SAG-AFTRA and Actor’s Equity Association

SOUNDTRACK

Inspired by these two albums.

Dysnomia by Dawn of Midi - three dudes in Brooklyn. Believe it or not, it’s all analog.

Disco Elysium by Sea Power. This became the soundtrack to the video game inspired by this story.

 
 
 

DIRECTOR’SNOTE

“What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open. Life swarms with innocent monsters.”

| Charles Baudelaire

The ability to gather and group ourselves as we do, in fact the key to our survival out of all other species of human that has walked the planet, is an evolutionary mechanism that allows us to create and believe in “shared fictions,” or “imagined orders.” These are intersubjective realities that exist only in our collective imaginations, yet rule our lives. Things like money, nations, gods, and laws.

In this story, China Miéville extrapolates shared fictions strangely and mysteriously. He presents two overlapping cities whose citizens are not allowed to sense or acknowledge the people, buildings, or sounds of the other city, even when standing right next to them. They call it “unseeing.” This social agreement, this imagined order, stretches the realm of possibility, but also tickles the mind with a nagging familiarity.

I have never known the country I live in more divided. With so much in common, it is remarkable that its people can so often hold their disagreements to the point of hatred or violence. Is it better to hate or to ignore— unsee—the dissenter? It does feel like I’m living in two nations at once.

Without pressing the hot buttons that raise our political or social hackles, Miéville lets us examine division: borders that separate us, and boundaries that protect us. It points at the shared fictions in our lives and asks us to wonder about what powers enforce, manipulate, profit from, or rebel against them.

•••

“Remember the movements that don’t look like moving.”

| China Miéville

My colleague, Latrelle Bright, was going to direct this play but she died almost before she could really begin. I miss her. What words are enough? Her soul is her last name. She is (was?) an excellent director, and I’m humbled to take up this mantle in her absence. She said she wanted to direct it because it scared her. It scares me too.

Like many good mysteries, this story begins with death. My son has been asking me what happens after we die, and in the end, I have to tell him that I just don’t know. It’s a mystery I can’t solve.

Going through some of my mother’s papers after she died, I found a passage she wrote referring to death as “a thin veil,” which has haunted me ever since. Perhaps that’s what it feels like—the unseeing in Miéville’s cities. Maybe it describes this strange national division too: a thin veil you can almost see through but can’t get to the other side.

Welcome to this world of imagined orders.

Welcome to the edge of the veil.

Welcome to the city and the city.