Sovereignty

Some wounds refuse to heal. Mary Kathryn Nagle’s daring new work, which debuts as the fourth production in Arena Stage’s Power Plays initiative, travels the intersections of personal and political truths as well as historic and present struggles. Sarah Ridge Polson, a young Cherokee lawyer fighting to restore her Nation’s jurisdiction, must confront the ever-present ghosts of her grandfathers. With shadows stretching from 1830s Cherokee Nation (present-day Georgia) through Andrew Jackson’s Oval Office to today’s Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, Sovereignty asks how high the flames of anger can rise before they ultimately consume the truth.