THIS FALL 2025
The Onion by Eric Sawyer, libretto by Eric Sawyer and Ron Bashford
Directed by Ron Bashford
[World Premiere] September 11-13, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Holden Experimental Theater, Amherst College
200 S. Pleasant Street, Amherst
-AND-
September 25, 2025 at 7:00 pm and September 26, 2025 at 7:30 pm
Maso Studio, Huntington Theatre
264 Huntington Avenue, Boston
Do we own our memories? The Onion is a new opera in which family secrets collide with a memory-enhancing AI. Through contact with their younger selves, its characters bring to the surface the experiences that have shaped their lives: a sexist theft of scientific work, the vanishing of a parent, the erasure of a gender identity. Will the intervention of an AI hurt or heal?
The opera unfolds on an island in the Pacific Northwest where a neuroscientist has sequestered herself with her daughter to create the Onion, an AI device that allows anyone using it to re-live a personal memory. Rounding out the human roles are the Onion’s young co-inventor and the neuroscientist’s ex-partner. The Onion itself is a character in the opera: its independence and influence on the human characters seem to grow each time they use it.
The Onion is a creation of composer/librettist Eric Sawyer and director/librettist Ron Bashford. The performance features a cast of five prominent Boston vocalists. The orchestra will be conducted by Ryan Turner, Music Director of Emmanuel Music.
Head to our Performances and Events page to learn about the cast and team!