How does one exist in the world: do you live your life according to a single ideal or by trial-and-error, seeking a diverse spiral of experiences? This dichotomy plays out everywhere and especially in human relationships. In “Tempest in a Teacup” six characters, each with a different way of being—Destiny, Great Love, Power, Obligation, Pleasure, Beauty—come together in a series of events revolving around a corporate function. As the characters collide, the viability of each way is questioned in their alternating viewpoints. Each narrator is unreliable – but then which one of us is ever a reliable narrator?
The idea for this story was born out of “Dictionary of Misunderstood Words” in Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being. From the day I first read him, I was fascinated with Kundera’s characters representing different how-to-exist-in-the-world ideas.