The Void offers its first Piccolo production, "Goodnight Embryos"

The Void, a Charleston based theater company, is bringing a fresh perspective to the long-cherished tradition of Piccolo Spoleto.

The queer-led, woman-led company founded in 2022 focuses on smaller cast works with subversive themes. Leaders Shannon Carmody and Brianna Morgan love to tackle new and premiering work, and their first foray into Piccolo Spoleto is no exception.

Their staging of Goodnight Embryos, written by Maureen McGranaghan, was a finalist for the 2020 Todd McNerney playwriting contest offered at the College of Charleston. It’s a workshop production, meaning the actors and director worked closely with the playwright to make changes to the script and develop the work as the actors rehearsed.

It’s a two-woman show: actors Teddi Lynette Thomas and Sadia Matthews play a lesbian couple, Em and Belle. The drama starts in 2014, when the couple uses IVF to conceive a son, Rory, and follows the couple over the next decade, covering the struggles of balancing a career, a relationship and parenting.

The issue that drives the plot forward is that the IVF procedure resulted in six embryos –- and the couple must now decide what to do with the remaining five. Belle wants another child, but Em demurs. Do they donate the embryos to another couple, or to science, or let them be destroyed? The two characters grapple with this decision and their changing lives.

Preparing for the future versus enjoying the present

The personal struggles that the couple goes through also mirror collective issues that we deal with in America, said the show’s Charleston based director, Destini Nicole Fleming.

“There’s this inability to make a decision that causes issues in the relationship,” Fleming said. “But then there’s all of these parallels within it to our collective issues — climate change, for example. What do we actually do? Do we actually try to live now, or are we constantly trying to prepare for future generations? It goes through a lot of the challenges that all of us have gone through in America over these past 10 years.”

Matthews, who plays Em, shares this view of the story, saying, “I hope we are able to portray how not communicating with each other as a nation is affecting us. What is going on within the doors of Em and Belle’s home is a mirror, a reflection of what is also happening at a much larger scale.”

Handling intersectional issues

One of the most exciting parts of the production is that it’s a workshop, meaning the actors work with the playwright to infuse the script with the truth of their own lived experiences.

“We ended up casting two Black women, so now, not only are we telling this story through the lens of a queer relationship, but also through a Black woman’s experience in the health care system,” Carmody said.

Matthews, who is a queer actor and a College of Charleston theater graduate, said she’s honored to help give life and lived experience to a story that isn’t often represented.

“We don’t see Black sapphic love on stage, but especially not on stage in Charleston,” she said.

“Combing through this work, we were trying to understand where we can address some of the nuances. One thing that kept coming up was health care for queer people, and how this play would not even exist if queer people and women had the correct access to health care.”

And she’s grateful for the workshop experience.

“(The playwright) Maureen highly encouraged us to just voice our opinions… working with Maureen on what this script looks like coming from our perspective, and seeing this art evolve, it was phenomenal.”

Real connections, on and off stage

Matthews explained she and Thomas have worked to create the chemistry needed for the 13 scenes in which they’ll share the spotlight. But some of their on-stage relationship, she explained, comes from shared instincts.

“We want to display the kind of chemistry that you have with lifelong partners, with soulmates,” she said. “Those people who understand exactly what you’re thinking without you saying anything… Even back when we were auditioning, we had this unspoken agreement like, if we love each other, we would hug in this moment, we would lean on each other…. I’m really glad that they casted someone who already had the same instinct for this couple that I did.”

The play also is the Charleston stage debut for Thomas, who studied acting at Winthrop University but has not performed professionally since graduating in 2018. She said sharing the stage with Matthews, who is celebrating her second show with The Void, has been an incredible learning experience.

“I’ve learned so much from Sadia, and I’m so honored that we get to work together to bring this story to life with The Void — it’s such a welcoming and non-judgmental environment,” Thomas said. “I get to be my authentic self in and out of rehearsal.”

Both actors said they ultimately hope that the audience can connect with the struggles and the triumphs of these characters.

“I hope the audience sees how beautiful Black and queer love is, and the real struggle of fertility,” Thomas said. “Fingers crossed, the audience leaves wanting to be a more gentle and understanding being towards one another.”

The Void’s director Carmody echoed that sentiment.

“I hope that people who have opposing views do come to our show and can see and relate to these very real, lovable characters and see a bit of themselves on stage,” she said. “Fertility is such a loaded, powerful, complicated, painful, joyous experience, and I feel like a lot of people are struggling silently.

“I’m hoping that this story makes people open their heart a little bit more, or makes them check up on the uterus owners in their life, because it is a hard fucking time to be a uterus owner. And I feel really grateful for the team that we have to tell this story. It’s one of the braver things we’ve ever put out in the world.”

The Void offers five chances to catch Goodnight Embryos at Hed Hi Studio during Piccolo Spoleto. 7:30 p.m. May 24, 25, 26, 31 and June 1. Tickets are $30 at citypapertickets and thevoidtheatre.org.