When grief shatters the world you know, love becomes worth crossing dimensions to reclaim.

Written and created by Charlotte Lily Gaspard, Mia M.I.A. is a genre-bending theatre puppet experience that fuses lo-fi space pop, live hip-hop, and hand-cut shadow puppetry into an emotionally charged journey through loss, love, and the impossible. Developed in residency at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club since 2021, the production has been shaped through three Jump Start programs, La MaMa’s renowned puppet works-in-progress series curated by Denise Greber.

After Mia vanishes without explanation, Ella is left to confront the brutal realities of grief and absence. Refusing to accept a world without her beloved, Ella launches into an enchanted, otherworldly dimension—one filled with space travel, unknown forces, and transformative encounters. What unfolds is a breathtaking odyssey where sorrow fractures into wonder, and healing emerges through courage, connection, and creation.

Told through live singing and original music, Mia M.I.A. pulses with energy and intimacy. Legendary griot and hip-hop artist Malik Work delivers electrifying live hip-hop numbers—written and performed for this Midnight Radio production—bringing ancestral storytelling traditions into bold conversation with futuristic soundscapes. The production’s innovative shadow puppetry, hand-cut silhouettes, and striking costume design conjure entire universes onstage, transforming the theatre into a living, breathing cosmos.

At once epic and deeply personal, Mia M.I.A. is a spellbinding exploration of love that refuses to disappear—and a reminder that sometimes, the only way forward is through the impossible.