Theater Mu world premiere ‘Fifty Boxes of Earth’ has Dracula, puppets and an air of magic

Will there be blood?

“Fifty Boxes of Earth,” Ankita Raturi’s new drama that’s up in a Theater Mu world premiere at St. Paul’s Park Square Theatre, takes its inspiration from Bram Stoker’s classic vampire novel.

The play orbits a queer immigrant who brings along natal soil as they settle in a new community. Raturi was reading “Dracula” and was struck by a passage in which the townspeople gathered to hunt the vampire who had transferred boxes of soil from Transylvania to London.

“They were trying to figure out how the vampire operates in order to destroy him,” Raturi said. “And they know that Dracula has to bring 50 boxes of his own earth in order to survive. So, one way to destroy him is to sterilize the earth so that he can’t rest.”

The passage sparked a query that is one of the overarching themes of “Boxes”: What does it mean to be an immigrant trying to put down roots in a new place?

The stakes are high in “Boxes.” Main character Q, who uses they/them pronouns, moves to a new neighborhood and joins a community garden. Q’s sod has special attributes that, when aided by their touch, allows for magical plants to grow even as distrust arises from others in the community.

New York-based performer Che’Li said that they are taken with the updated premise of the play.

“I’ve been meditating a lot on the word queer and what it means in this context,” Che’Li said. “Queer in this sense means something that knows where its magic is. There’s a buzz of terror in the background that just keeps mounting but the power of this play is that it’s a reminder of the magic that’s available to us.”

That magic plays out not only in the content of “Boxes,” but also in how the story is told. It uses poetic language, puppetry and dance movement choreographed by Ananya Chatterjea, founder of Ananya Dance Theatre.

She sculpts movement on five dancers who form the show’s nature ensemble and regulate the flow.

“The dance here is not decorative at all. It is essential and draws on dance-drama traditions of India,” Chatterjea said.

Director KT Shorb, a scholar and practitioner who specializes in devised works, adds that the play also is about something that may look like the opposite of magic: a discombobulation as people move their bodies and dreams from one place to another.

“Sometimes they’re moving to pursue dreams but oftentimes it’s to flee something dangerous,” said Shorb, who uses they/them pronouns. The director sees the play as asking something more fundamental than adaptation to a new community or land.

In the Dracula story, we assume that the vampire is the bad guy.

But “what if Dracula wasn’t the monster?” Shorb asks. “At multiple points in my life, I, myself, remember being treated like an outsider, a monster. And that can lead to wars and death.”

Ultimately, Shorb said, “the question we’re asking is what does it mean to be human.”

The company has been subscribing to a quote by Indian author Arundhati Roy.

“The only dream worth having is to dream that you will live while you are alive, and die only when you are dead,” Roy wrote.

That sense of presence, and of honoring memory, is ultimately one of the things that “Boxes” strives for, Raturi said.

“Boxes” lands at a time when immigration and gender identity are the subjects of government edicts. That makes the work even more vital, Chatterjea said, but it’s not a political lecture or something didactic.

Q operates in an earth-based ecology where the movement is like taking one’s hand, the choreographer said.

“Think of it as an invitation to think about how you plant your hopes and seeds and desires in new ground and how you can grow them with kindness and care,” Chatterjea said. “Q gives up their blood and the result is something that’s beautiful for everyone.”

Who: By Ankita Raturi. Directed by KT Shorb and choreographed by Ananya Chatterjea.

When: 2 & 7:30 p.m. Fri. & Sat., 2 p.m. Sun. 7:30 p.m. Wed.-Thu. Ends March 16.

Where: Park Square Theatre, 20 W. 7th Place, St. Paul.

Tickets: $45-$60 or pay-as-you-are-able, theatermu.org.