What we know about Lot’s wife from the Bible is that she looked back at the city of Sodom, although forbidden to do so, and became a pillar of salt. Lots more happens in Genesis 19 – a mob of men from Sodom threatens to “know” (rape?) two angels sent by the Lord; the angels blind all of them, then annihilate both Sodom and Gomorrah, letting Lot escape; Lot’s two daughters get Lot drunk and have sex with him in order to bear him children – but that’s all we hear about Lot’s wife; we don’t even learn her name

Theater artist Dan Daly gives a distinct new context to this Biblical character, one that’s lyrical, inventive, pointed – and very different.

 “The Story of Lot’s Wife” is, primarily, an art installation. Or maybe primarily a poem. Or maybe ultimately a radical act of queerness. There are no actors. But maybe each audience member becomes a character. We are a pilgrim on a journey to turn a story from Scripture that’s ugly in a number of ways into something secular and sublime.

 One audience member at a time enters through a beaded curtain and walks past nine objects, placed like shrines against a blue velvet background,  an experience that takes about fifteen minutes.  Daly, who sits outside, has handed us a booklet that describes each object as a moment, explaining it briefly, then riffing on it, followed occasionally by a suggestion of some modest activity that we can do, which has the feel of ritual.

  The first moment in the installation presents a group of four salt-shakers, which, we’re told, contain “250 grams of salt, the approximate amount in each of our bodies.”

The booklet then explains the history and uses of salt, how it’s often used in rituals, but it is also “rooted in the fights for freedom around the world.”   Gandhi, for example, led his people to the sea to make salt in defiance of the British colonial empire’s monopoly on salt-making in India.

This first section concludes: “Salt is a part of us. Our bodies and our cultures. We need it and take it for granted. And you, Lot’s Wife, you are now made of this stuff.”

It’s in the second section that the main point of this unusual work of theater starts to become clear. The object is a vessel of water. The explanation: “This water was collected in San Francisco  Bay where salt is still produced and whose shores house one of the largest queer communities in America.”

“The Story of Lot’s Wife” becomes a response to the hateful use of the Sodom and Gomorrah story as a justification for homophobia. It’s done cleverly, but not smugly. 

Daly works largely as a scenic designer, specializing in immersive theater. His design for “Tammany Hall,” knocked me out, turning Soho Playhouse into a bustling political clubhouse with fifteen separate playing areas, most of which theatergoers had never seen before, or knew existed — backstage, the roof,  a loft, an office, a closet, a makeshift dressing room, a rickety staircase.

“The Story of Lot’s Wife” is simpler, quieter in its design, delicate – and breathtaking in its effect.

The Story of Lot’s Wife
Cell Theater through August 25
Running time: 15 minutes
Tickets: sliding scale starting at $10
by Dan Daly and Ofo Theater
Lighting Design by Zoe Griffith
Sound Design by Julian Singer-Corbin