The Modern Classics Audio Play Series revisits foundational texts not to preserve them in amber, but to place them in conversation with the present. In this episode we adapt Ernest Hemingway's Hills Like White Elephants. The original story, linked below, is a tense conversation between an American man and his girlfriend at a Spanish train station, revolving around an unspoken, implied abortion.

Hemingway wrote Hills Like White Elephants at a moment when patriarchy, empire, and authority were rarely questioned aloud. Yet the story itself is built on tension rather than certainty—on what is said too often, what is not said at all, and who is ultimately asked to carry the weight of a decision.

Hemingway’s work frequently exposes power as something maintained through calm insistence and silence rather than moral clarity. In this story, the imbalance of voice reveals an underlying instability: the fear that inherited authority may no longer be enough.

This adaptation reframes that instability. By shifting the center of the narrative from persuasion to choice, it foregrounds autonomy as an act of courage rather than defiance. The woman’s decision is not presented as a conflict to be won, but as a departure—quiet, deliberate, and irreversible.

In keeping with the mission of the Shawna E. Shea Memorial Foundation, this production reflects a broader commitment to amplifying voices that step away from coercive structures and toward self-definition. The play invites listeners to sit with uncertainty, to listen closely, and to recognize that change often begins not with argument, but with clarity—and the resolve to leave the table.

Gregory Velez: The Host

Tiziana Guarini: The Woman

Patrick Bracken: The American

Claudia Zonetti: The Barista

Hills Like White Elephants by Ernest Hemingway