Ain Gordon “haunts the margins of history…conjuring the sort of distant lives that don’t make it into textbooks, processed into oblivion by what he calls history’s ‘ruthless editing machine.” — The New York Times

Relics and Their Humans marks the second collaboration between writer, director, and performer Ain Gordon and composer, writer, and performer Josh Quillen. Their first project, Radicals in Miniature — which premiered at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in 2017 — was a New York Times Critic’s Pick.

This new work is a theatrical and musical journey to Quillen’s hometown of Dover, Ohio, tracing his family’s three-year odyssey following his father’s ALS diagnosis in 2006. Three powerful relics anchor the piece: a recorded interview with Quillen’s mother, his father’s journal, and a surprising playlist.

Through Gordon and Quillen’s spirited performances, Talvin Wilks’s inventive dramaturgy, and Jennifer Tipton’s evocative lighting, these personal artifacts are transformed into a deeply moving experience that lingers long after the final scene.

Relics and Their Humans was made possible with development residencies at the Abrons Arts Center, Arizona Arts Live, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, Wexner Center for the Arts, a development grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts National Theatre Project, and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grant for performances at La MaMa ETC June 2024. First performed at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, October 14, 2023.