Trap Door Theatre Archives

Purgatory in a dystopian disco

by Dmitry Samarov September 28, 2023September 28, 2023

Set in a place that is equal parts dystopian disco and minimal sci-fi torture dungeon (set and costumes designed by Natasha Djukic), Zeljko Djukic directs Adam Ranđelović’s adaptation from Daniel Gerould’s translation of Stanisław Witkiewicz’s tragicomic 1919 piece of existentialist hand-wringing. Plasfodor (Kevin Webb)—married to the mute Mamalia (Venice Averyheart), who dances her words rather […]

Seven actors in bright Mod jackets stand and sprawl around a set of gray cracked floor tiles and gray boxes.

Theater Review

Bowie in Warsaw serves up a moonage nightmare

by Dmitry Samarov May 24, 2023May 24, 2023

Paweł Świątek directs the U.S. premiere of Dorota Masłowska’s arch 70s-era murder mystery/comedy of manners (translated by Soren Gauger). Rumors fly wild in the streets of Warsaw about a mythical stalker terrorizing the citizenry while the true villain pervading their society seems to be a blanketing existential despair. In the last days of Soviet hegemony, […]

Seven actors of various genders and ethnicities stand in a row. They are all wearing brightly colored extravagant clothing, except for a figure in the middle in plain earth tones, who is standing behind an empty picture frame with a cartoon version of a dollar bill shoved in their mouth.

Theater Review

The backstabbers

by Dmitry Samarov January 18, 2023January 23, 2023

In Witold Gombrowicz’s fictional kingdom of Burgundia, the royal court is bored. One day Prince Phillip (Keith Surney) and his consort, Simon (Gus Thomas) happen upon Ivona (Laura Nelson), a cowering and often mute peasant girl. Having nothing better to do and looking to outrage his family and friends, the prince announces that Ivona will […]

A Black man kneels left at the side of a white man. Both are in black clothing. The face of the white man is covered in large white bandages.

Theater Review

Temporary beauty

by Dmitry Samarov September 28, 2022September 28, 2022

Lette (Dennis Bisto) assumes that since he’s the inventor of his company’s latest product, he’ll be the one to present it at the big upcoming corporate event. But then his coworkers and wife reveal a secret kept from him his entire life: his hideous face. No one would ever buy his genius invention when he […]

Three men in formalwear stand in a line carrying a wooden box wrapped with rope. On the right, a woman in a white dress is visible behind a sheet of plastic.

Theater Review

War cries

by Dmitry Samarov May 12, 2022June 5, 2022

A wooden rowboat and plastic sheets lining two back walls are the only decorations for Sarah Tolan-Mee’s English-language adaptation of Heiner Müller’s 1982 cry-of-anguish riff on war, betrayal, and the messiness of identity. Using the Greek legends of Medea and Jason as a jumping-off point, this is a raging, poetic rant against tyranny and fate […]

A white man and a Black woman stand just behind a kneeling white man, with their hands on his shoulders. All three are wearing exaggerated makeup and clear plastic masks. The setting looks like a circus tent.

Theater Review

We have met the tiger, and it is us

by Dmitry Samarov February 9, 2022February 22, 2022

Nicole Wiesner directs Sławomir Mrożek’s loopy 1959 send-up of Eastern bloc life. All the put-upon Mr. Ohey—Dennis Bisto in a snarling standout turn—wants to do is read his newspaper. But an avalanche of quotidian and not-so-quotidian circumstances conspire to make this impossible. Mrs. Ohey—portrayed gracefully, which is quite a feat considering what’s being thrown at […]

A man (left) in a pink and purple striped robe is attacked by a woman in a yellow skirt with a tiger-striped blouse.

Theater Review

C is for confusion

by Dmitry Samarov November 11, 2021November 11, 2021

Michael Mejia directs Laura Ruohonen’s 2003 exploration of power, identity, and freedom in Trap Door Theatre’s return to in-person performance. Loosely based on Queen Christina, the 17th-century Swedish monarch who abdicated because she couldn’t rule on her own terms, Queen C pays only cursory lip service to period specificity. The message is spelled out at […]