About the artist

Polina is a Providence based visual artist originally from the former Soviet Union. This is her first play.

isolation lake

polina volfovich

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/DW4cS-TEV63/

CATEGORY:
​Theater, Comedy

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DESCRIPTION OF PIECE:

This short, surreal play follows a young woman standing chest-deep in a lake, attempting to “disconnect” from digital life while still clinging to her phone. She reflects, with humor and despair, on how algorithms have reshaped her attention span and sense of self—reducing her from a once-avid reader to someone emotionally invested in short, trivial videos. The lake, meant to be healing, instead becomes psychologically unsettling, forcing her to confront buried anxieties, past embarrassments, and a pervasive sense of isolation.

A small, serene folkloric figure—a sauna spirit known as a Sauna Tonttu—emerges from nearby steam and gently challenges her state of mind. Offering a simple philosophy—that healing comes through “salty water,” whether tears, sweat, or the sea—the spirit invites her to leave the lake and enter the sauna. The woman resists at first, caught in her loop of ironic detachment and emotional fatigue, but gradually becomes receptive to the possibility of change.

The play blends humor, modern digital anxiety, and mythic imagery to explore disconnection, self-absorption, and the difficulty of being present. It ends ambiguously but hopefully, as she follows the spirit into the sauna, leaving her buzzing phone behind.