Jessica Goldberg wrote Refuge in 1999, and it premiered in 2000 in New York, when American theatre was experiencing a blossoming of new voices that were exploring intimacy, emotional fragility, and alternative ways of living together beyond conventional boundaries. Goldberg, with piercing sensitivity and a remarkable talent for portraying silent pain, became part of a generation of women playwrights who turned the everyday into a space of emotional resistance.
Refuge emerges from a wound: that of a broken family, of a world left without adults, and of a responsibility that falls too soon upon young shoulders. But it is also a play full of tenderness, of quiet light, of small gestures that sustain. Goldberg does not judge her characters; she observes them with compassion, with clarity, and with great humanity.
With a writing style that is both direct and filled with silences, Goldberg crafts a piece that transcends time. Although it was written over twenty years ago, Refuge still speaks to us today with undeniable strength. At a time when family bonds are being redefined, when the notion of home is becoming porous, when many people — young and not so young — are seeking a place where they can feel safe, this play invites us to look at ourselves again and ask: what is a refuge, today?
Revisiting Refuge also means reclaiming a way of making theatre that centres vulnerability, affection and, as mentioned, silence. Jessica Goldberg wrote a play that speaks of a specific moment in time, yet inevitably reflects back on us. Restaging it today is a way of asserting that this question — how do we take care of ourselves when everything falls apart? — remains as urgent as ever.
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