Our journey begins when Mlima, one of the last great tusker elephants in Kenya, is killed by poachers. Caught in the clandestine international ivory market, Mlima travels across the world, forced along a trail of greed and desire as old as the trade itself; trapped between memory and fear, history and tradition, want and need. From two time Pulitzer Prize-winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined), comes a mystical, lyrical ballad that gives voice to the objects we consume, the lives we exploit, and the planet we put at risk.  

About the playwright: Lynn Nottage is a playwright and a screenwriter, and the first woman in history to win two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama. Her plays include Sweat (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award), which moved to Broadway after a sold out run at The Public Theater, Mlima's Tale (Outer Critics Circle Nomination), By the Way, Meet Vera Stark (Lilly Award, Drama Desk Nomination), Ruined (Pulitzer Prize, Obie Award), Intimate Apparel (American Theatre Critics and New York Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Play), Fabulation, or the Re-Education of Undine (OBIE Award), Crumbs from the Table of Joy, Las Meninas, Mud, River, Stone, Por’knockers and POOF!. In addition, she is working with composer Ricky Ian Gordon on adapting her play Intimate Apparel into an opera at Lincoln Center. She has also developed This is Reading, a performance installation at the Franklin Street, Reading Railroad Station in Reading, PA. She was writer/producer on the first season of Netflix series She's Gotta Have It directed by Spike Lee. Nottage is a member of the Dramatists Guild, an Associate Professor at Columbia University School of the Arts, and the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award, Doris Duke Artists Award and PEN/Laura Pels Master Playwright Award, among others.

"We often forget that we co-exist on this planet with other creatures who have beautiful stories that go largely untold. Mlima’s Tale is an attempt to give voice to a magnificent Elephant, one of the last great tuskers in Kenya, whose life is cut short by poachers.  I am very excited that Marin Theatre Company is sharing this mystical tale that drives home the consequences of poaching and the exploitation of wildlife on our planet."  —Lynn Nottage