When a child is ill, you might wrap them in a blanket and feed them some reliably nutritious chicken soup. But what do you do for a nation of people who are numb from fear and disbelief at what their hoped-for country has become? If you are like Tim Nelson, artistic director of IN Series, you mi ght prescribe one or more passion plays, as needed — as he explained: “Ultimately, the Passion is about the essence of catharsis — that is, watching an experience of suffering felt so deeply that one’s heart is broken open and one is enabled to love more deeply. What more could we be in need of today?” Over the first three weekends of March, that’s just what IN Series did. Under the umbrella title of Passion Plays: A Festival, IN Series presented the world premieres of three new passion plays. The first, entitled Only the Air, ran from March 6 to 8. The second, Passio, ran from March 13 to 15. And the third, For Women Serving Time, ran from March 20 to 22, all at the Dupont Underground.  Though each of the three productions filled the stage with an abundance of startling, memorable visual images and evocative text, these presentations were handled more like prayers and rituals than performance. And the performances were structured in a way that did not invite applause, no matter how moving and brilliant the performance may have been. Only the Air Scene from ‘Only the Air.’ Photo courtesy of IN Series. Only the Air, a stripped-down exploration of the St. Matthew Passion, Bach’s enormous and much revered retelling of the final days of Jesus, gave us a new English spoken narration that was structured like a story one might read to a receptive adolescent at bedtime, a story that placed the listener at the center of the story in the role of the heroic god-like protagonist (text by Joshua Borths). At the same time, the enormousness of the inner thoughts and feelings experienced by the protagonist was captured by Shana Ohana’s sung lyrics in such lines as this: If the Tracks of our Tears lead usto Christ Jesus,let us go as one in sorrowin our mourning joy will follow. Running Time: Approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. Only the Air ran from March 6 to 8, 2026, at Dupont Underground.Singers: Colleen Daly, Carl Dupont, Joseph Haughton, Elizabeth MondragonThe Reader: William MatsonPianist and music director: Joy SchreierMusic by J.S. Bach after the St. Matthew PassionNew text by Joshua Borths and Shana Oshiro Passio Scene from ‘Passio.’ Photo courtesy of IN Series. One of the primary threads that is woven through all three of these passion plays is the idea that while injustice and suffering from it may be inevitable, the creativity, resistance, and resilience needed to confront them are not limited to fiction, mythology, and theology. Our lives are full of these qualities. And maybe our lives could be considered sacred scripture as well. Only the Air delivers this idea by referring to the protagonist in the second person, as though the audience is, in fact, the protagonist.  Passio is subtitled ˆToday’s Stories of Sacrifice.” The text and music were created by the entire cast, using their own true personal stories. In the Black American religious tradition I come from, in which congregation members are given the opportunity to share how they have encountered and prevailed over the challenges of life, this would have been called a “testimony service.” These women are master interdisciplinary artists who come from a variety of cultures around the world. Improvisation was central to this piece. Each of the women had testimonies of how their lives were shaped by sacrifice for family or homeland. Their stories were spoken in part and sung in part and were addressed both to the gathering of women onstage and to the audience. Maribeth Diggle’s dreamlike staging and choreography repeatedly assembled the performers into groups that constantly shifted and reconfigured throughout the performance. When an enormous light that had been shining on the stage transformed into a moon/sun that was setting, the conclusion of the piece coalesced into a moving, ecstatic cacophony and all of the performers sang their testimonies and played their instruments simultaneously, letting the propulsion of their stories move them across the stage. Running Time: Approximately 60 minutes without intermission. Passio ran from March 13 to 15, 2026, at Dupont Underground.Text and music created by the cast: Alejandra Borzyk, Laila Amezian, Rajna Swaminathan, Tina Chancey, Joyce J. Scott, Maribeth Diggle, Lucie de Saint Vincent For Women Serving Time Scene from ‘For Women Serving Time.’ Photo courtesy of IN Series. To create the opera-theater work For Women Serving Time, composer Adrienne Torf took Fatemeh Keshavarz’s poem of the same name and fused it with her own compositions and also with music that evoked Miles Davis (“Lift to the Scaffold”), Kurt Weill (“Pirate Jenny”), and Gabriel Fauré (Requiem). This produced a chilling observation of the way that in prison, women, because they are women, are systematically dehumanized.  Like Only the Air, For Women Serving Time was directed by Tim Nelson. In this work, the orange carceral jumpsuit from Only the Air, previously occupied by the idea of Jesus, returned. But this time it was occupied by women’s bodies. And so, the idea that anyone’s life could and should be considered (and treated) as something sacred received its most engaging and most poignant challenge here. The set had two levels. A quintet of instrumentalists was located on the lower level and embedded in the the action. The performance of the music by both singers and instrumentalists was never less than exciting and urgent. For example, with each return of the aggressive vamp of “Pirate Jenny” (maybe most recognizable to audiences from Nina Simone’s version), the resentment held by the imprisoned women for their guards, both direct and indirect, became instantly understandable. The staging fluidly moved the characters from support/therapy group to cafeteria food line to prison cell, providing us with a vivid sense of the prisoners’ loneliness. The prison guard sings and directly addresses the audience in the course of this show, powerfully evoking for the audience an experience of Brechtian distancing, and reminding us a little of the musical Cabaret. LadiesAnd gentlemen!America has put more women in prison than any other parts of the world!Women serving time do not always have visitors, did you know?And someMostly their childrenDo not comeBecause they cannot bear to leave without them. Running Time: Approximately 65 minutes with no intermission. For Women Serving Time ran from March 20 to 22, 2026, at the Dupont Underground and will also play in Baltimore at The Baltimore Theatre Project on April 10 and 11 at 7:30 pm and April 12 at 2:30 pm. Purchase tickets for the Baltimore run (general admission, $35; students, $25) online. Music by Adrienne Torf, text by Fatemeh KeshavarzCast: Elizabeth Mondragon, Shana Oshiro, Carly Oard, Louisa Waycott, Melissa Wimbush, Judy Yannini Instrumentalists: Adrienne Torf, Music Director Pianist; Michael Barranco, Percussion; Josh Carr, Trumpet; Carrie Rose; Flute; Maxfield Wollam-/Fisher, Cello SEE ALSO:IN Series’ ‘Passion Plays’ reclaim an ancient art form for a fractured present (preview feature by Gregory Ford, March 4, 2026) ...read more read less