Synopsis
by Sarah Ruhl

Five artists (a poet, former actress turned farmer, performance artist, choreographer, and painter) all gather at a remote farm in the country hoping to be inspired by the beauty of nature to make their art, retreating from the city and the rest of the world. But when they arrive, the weather outside and the seasons are disordered. Winter follows spring; the time is out of joint. A Cosmic Weatherman appears and reports on the weather and its disordered nature. But these artists are able to feel the emotional weather inside of them more acutely than they feel the weather outside of them.

The painter and the poet fall in love in the spring but have a lovers' quarrel when the weather changes. The choreographer and the farmer fall in love. But the weather — an intense winter storm barreling through the spring — threatens their survival. After an argument with his beloved, the poet is knocked unconscious in the blizzard.

The painter rushes to find the poet to wake him. The roads to the hospitals are covered with snow. The painter sings to the poet, waking him finally. They vow to weather the storms together. The artists came to nature to be saved by it, and now feel they must save nature, and feel entirely helpless. Then the summer fires come. The choreographer perishes fighting the fire. The weather continues to get more extreme; the floods come, threatening this band of artists yet again. The power goes out. The performance artist arrives on her homemade ship, accompanied by a children’s chorus, to ferry them all to dry land. They all pray for a future together.