​

STORY PLOT

Two men on the brink of death fall into an ominous world called the 5th Bardo, where nothing is more frightening than confronting one’s many selves.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS

Pursued by faceless assailants in cars, Eric and Samuel violently crash— Eric gets thrown from his moped and Samuel from his bicycle. As Eric lies dying , “The Director” introduces to our new world— The Fifth Bardo, a place between life and death. Eric slips into the Fifth Bardo, landing smack inside of a Windsor Ambulance in Detroit Michigan’s infamous past. Eric meets several estranged kids from all walks of life at the Eloise Home for the Insane. He tries desperately to escape the Bardo but instead opens a door to the dressing room of the legendary French writer Sidonie Colette. She promises to rally him out of his coma if he can reveal her secret truth to the world of the living so that she can face her guilt and move beyond her perpetual limbo out of the Bardo. He agrees but must discover his way out of the labyrinthine ghost-infested halls of the Eloise Asylum, which lands him smack at the National "Burlesk" Theatre. However, he is not the only protagonist in the story. Samuel also crashed and fell into the 5th Bardo under different circumstances. He witnesses a crime and the murder of one of the characters we already have met and gets chased around Detroit City. Eventually, he gets caught by his assailants. Thus, the game begins: who will live and who will die? The choice is not initially apparent to either of them, as alternatives have consequences based on numerous factors.

Furthermore, the Children and the Bardo have much to say about this dilemma. In the third Act, the Bardo shifts, and Eric and Samuel reencounter one another, but this time, Samuel has aged and calls himself Samuel Cook, and Eric is younger. Samuel becomes a guide of the Eloise Asylum and an expert on the history of the National "Burlesk" Theater. Eric becomes smitten with Samuel Cook and follows him further into the Bardo. Eric begins to see Samuel and what lies beneath his handsome facade, realizing he must be walking with "Death." Finally,   Eric and Samuel face off. One will live, and the other will die. But more importantly, we discover if you are both Eric and Samuel, which is your truth? Or Which is your lie?

​