this is not a love story.

love is a heavy, unwieldy thing. It almost feels cruel to ask anyone to hold it all alone. but that's the way of things; two human beings can discover and cling to one another out of desperation to experience any love at all, and yet still find themselves unable to share its load when it arrives.

such is the story of natalie and aiden, two young people who discover a friendship that blossoms into romance and quickly turns darker as the world shapes them in ways neither could have expected or prepared for. how does their love, this enormous abstraction, hold up against the reflections of things they know to be much truer and more tangible: trauma? gender roles? the exhaustion of growing up? does their love hold up against all these things? how can it?

they are starving for it. dying for it. but we do not know if they ever find it.

this is not a love story. this is not a love story.

CAST
natalie: Leah Davidowitz (she/her)
aiden: Nick Bella (he/him)
kid: Vivian Hunt (any pronouns)

CREW
director / writer / producer / dramaturg: Naira Sarin Jain (they/them)
stage manager: Zara Lemieux (they/them)
sound designer: Tucker Forbeck (they/them)

PRESENTED BY
FRIGID New York Fringe Festival, Spring 2025
3 Jokers Entertainment