Hard Lovin’ Ever After
The Ballad of Cowboy Monk and His Lady Love

Active Eye Company
Winter 2006

Directed by Jyana S. Gregory
Music Composed by Rika Iino
Playwritten by Lucas Hnath
Space and Light by Shaun Fillion
Costume Design by Jessica Ford
Live beat box, guitar and loops by Pete List

Adapted from Love Suicides at the Women’s Temple by the 18th-century Japanese dramatist Chikamatsu, Hard Lovin’ Ever After tells the story of a pair of young, passionate lovers who can’t realize their dream of a life together. She’s forced into a marriage with a rich merchant to pay off her parents’ debts. He’s a fugitive in hiding at a Buddhist monastery. But their ardor can’t be quelled by a few marriage or religious vows, so they set off on a course to double suicide, hoping to be united in bliss on a snow-white lotus.