Bittersweet follows one mother’s journey to attempt the impossible after the tragic loss of her child. With the promise from the Buddha that he can resurrect her daughter if she can procure a mustard seed from a house not touched by grief, she sets out on her journey to return to the perfect world of her past by visiting the doorsteps of the future.
On the other side of time, she meets musician Leonard Cohen, writer Maya Angelou, scientist Charles Darwin and others who transformed their incapacitating grief into offerings that forever changed the course of history. How far would you go to return to the perfect and beautiful world before your heart was broken?
Bittersweet is adapted from Susan Cain’s #1 New York Times best-selling book of the same name and Oprah’s first Book Club selection of 2023. Bittersweet weaves together poignant stories of loss and resilience, the author’s personal experience, art, literature, religion, and science — from Darwin to epigenetics — to explain why longing and loss are so deeply profound, inspirational, and transformational to the human experience. Bittersweet makes a case for embracing our grief, longing, and melancholy as a doorway to the sublime and connection with our deepest places of creativity and compassion.
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"This book has the power to transform the way you see your life and even the world. I have started to look at my own life in the world differently."
- OPRAH WINFREY
“Bittersweet” has it all: a catchy word, a culture that doesn’t appreciate the power of that word and a call to action for individuals and businesses who can better meet their goals by embracing the word.”
- NEW YORK TIMES
“Bittersweet is an incredibly uplifting book — transcendent even.”
- WRITER’S DIGEST
“An antidote for our uncertain times and a toolbox for using angst and yearning as a means of transforming pain into creativity, transcendence, and love.”
- OPRAH DAILY
The first devising team for Bittersweet The Play included
Annika Wong, Courtnie Alvarado, Konata Stallings, Brandon P. Raines, & Gagarin