Based on a novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning Michael Cunningham and adapted by Peter Gaitens, Flesh and Blood tells the story of a Greek immigrant and his family in search of the elusive American Dream. Three generations are portrayed on stage in a fluid performance that never lets the audience take a breath.

“The show explores how each generation lays their hopes onto the next,” says Communication junior Barrak Alzaid, the producer of the show.

Flesh and Blood is presented by WAVE productions and will be performed at Shanley Pavilion this weekend.

Fifty years of drama are compressed into a dynamic two-hour show. In order to do this, the show denounces traditional theatrical procedure: Several scenes are staged simultaneously. Maintaining the entirety of the original text, the dialogue overlaps, and while onstage, a character can sometimes be in several places and in different circumstances all at once. Although it may sound chaotic, the dense Flesh and Blood manages to find its own rhythm, where time and distance succumb to the emotional resonance of the show.

“There’s one set, one costume, no stops,” says Communication junior Jeremy Bloom, the director of the show. “We change scenes by having an actor turn, or centering the action on a different part of the stage.”

A condensed lifetime of disillusionment and tragedy for an immigrant family makes clear that the pursuit of the American dream is a fluid process – never easy and constantly forcing us to delay our hopes.

Flesh and Blood runs Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. with 11 p.m. performances on Friday and Saturday. Tickets are on sale at Norris and can be purchased at the door for $5.