TWO ELIZAS is a Hit!

Production photos from Luna Stage’s May 2023 production of TWO ELIZAS, written and performed by Eliza Mercein.

My latest solo show TWO ELIZAS explores the true story of my ancestor Eliza Mercein Barry and her landmark 1847 U.S. Supreme Court case, Barry v. Mercein, which established a woman's right to retain custody of her child. In this intergenerational reflection on resilience and women's rights, I juxtapose my ancestor’s story with my own trials and tribulations on the road to motherhood. TWO ELIZAS premiered in May of 2023 at Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ, where it was hailed as a "…a one-woman tour-de-force performance that is a theatrical gift.” In January of 2024, the show played at the Whitefire SoloFest in Los Angeles, where critic Samantha Simmonds-Ronceros declared in “the personification of all that is perfect and true in a solo theatre play.” In May of 2024, I did a sold-out site-specific run at the historic Hermann-Grima House in New Orleans, where critic Brian Sands called it “an engrossing tale of history, both personal and of American jurisprudence, which Mercein weaves together to fascinating effect.” In June of 2024, TWO ELIZAS has an international premiere at Mezrab: House of Stories in Amsterdam.