Season 10, Sundown Shows

THE PILLOWMAN by Martin McDonagh

Katurian, a writer of short stories that often depict violence against children, has been arrested by two detectives, Ariel and Tupolski, because some of his stories resemble recent child murders. When he hears that his brother Michal has confessed to the murders and implicated him, Katurian resigns himself to being executed but attempts to save his stories from destruction. The play contains both narrations and reenactments of several of Katurian’s stories, including the autobiographical “The Writer and the Writer’s Brother”, which tells how Katurian developed his disturbed imagination by hearing the sounds of Michal being tortured by their parents.

Sundown Shows

BUG by Tracy Letts

Set in a seedy Oklahoma City motel room, the play centers on the meeting between Agnes, a divorced waitress with a fondness for cocaine and isolation, and Peter, a soft-spoken Gulf War drifter introduced to her by her friend R.C. Agnes stays at a hotel in hopes of avoiding her abusive ex-husband, Jerry, who was just released from prison. At first, she lets Peter sleep platonically on her floor, but soon he joins her in her bed. Matters become more complicated as Jerry eagerly but violently returns to the woman he loves, expecting to resume their relationship. On top of that, there's a hidden bug infestation problem that has both Agnes and Peter dealing with scathing welts and festering sores—which convinces Peter he is a victim of secret military experiments. Their fears soon escalate to paranoia, conspiracy theories, and twisted psychological motives.

Sundown Shows

FAR AWAY by Caryl Churchill

As a child, Joan witnesses a horrific incident involving her uncle, which she is told to ignore for the good of "the cause." As she grows older, this act proves to be part of a literal world war, with all elements of nature taking sides. Presented promenade-style in a house, Far Away explores how one action can represent an escalation into global catastrophe.