Is God Is

Is God Is (written by Aleshea Harris) is a darkly comic, high-octane modern myth and revenge tragedy that blends elements of the Spaghetti Western, Afropunk, and epic Greek drama. The story centers on Anaia and Racine, 21-year-old identical twin sisters living in the American Northeast. Both women bear severe, disfiguring burn scars from a catastrophic house fire that occurred when they were toddlers. For 18 years, they believed their mother was dead. However, they receive a stunning message that she is actually alive and residing in a southern nursing home. When the twins go to visit her, they discover their mother—referred to simply as “SHE”—is also horrifyingly and extensively scarred. She reveals the truth about their past: the fire was intentionally set years ago by the girls’ father, “Man,” who trapped them, tried to kill their mother, and left them all to burn before fleeing to start a new life. Viewing their mother as a god-like figure who gave them life, the twins accept her dying wish and ultimate command: to travel west to “The Valley” in California, track down their father, and exact righteous, bloody revenge. The Journey West Leaving their old lives behind, Anaia and Racine embark on a gritty, episodic odyssey across the country. Along the way, they navigate their distinct personalities—Racine is bolder and more resolute, while Anaia struggles with internal doubt and the physical pain of her scars—and grapple with whether they are truly cut out to be killers. They eventually track down their father, who has built a comfortable life for himself in the hills with a new family, including a new set of twin sons. When the sisters confront him, “Man” attempts to manipulate them, unrepentantly shifting the blame onto their mother and trying to talk them out of their mission. Unswayed by his deception, the sisters carry out their mission in a wave of unflinching, operatic violence, holding a mirror up to cycles of generational trauma, systemic injustice, and the heavy, consuming price of vengeance.