It is a chapter from The Brothers Karamazov, the Russian author's last novel and perhap his greatest work, as he interwove his favorite themes of struggling family, the deceptive beauty of institutions, existential angst, and hope. My favorite is the theme of hope; of spiritual devotion to the divine nature of our world; where, in spite of the darkness that slowly clouds our hearts from bitter experiences, there exists proof in the divinity of our universe in our ability to love.

The audio play covers almost the entire chapter "The Grand Inquisitor," beginning at the tail end of the previous chapter, "Mutiny" (or, Book V: Chapters 4 & 5). At a restaurant, Ivan Karamazov is having a conversation with his younger brother, Alyosha, about his views on God, immortality, and suffering. At first, it seems to Alyosha an intellectual exercise, but then Ivan's vision of the Grand Inquisitor reveals the personal suffering at the brothers heart.

My collaboration with an old friend, Dan Ribaudo, and this website that serves as a multi-media accompaniment, are the products of a decade of befuddlement and interest in the story; three years of a desire to record its theatrical reading; a long night in Portland where Dan and I struggled with an incomplete personal vision of the play; and a long day in Dan's Analog Laboratory where we fleshed out ideas, sketches, storyboards, themes and voices that became the work that you can see and hear, now.