Trap Door Presents our Sunday Abroad Reading Series:

Eastern Promises

A staged reading series featuring Eastern European playwrights

Trap Door Theatre is thrilled to introduce a new play-reading series called Sundays Abroad with its first iteration, Eastern Promises. This first series of readings, Eastern Promises will play one Sunday a month in 2026, January – July at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland St. in Chicago. 

About the Sunday Stories Series, Sundays Abroad 

Sunday Stories is Trap Door Theatre’s new staged reading series with a mission to foster cross-cultural understanding through the power of live staged readings. Sunday Stories will feature lesser known playwrights from around the world, historical to modern, highlighting their unique voices, cultural contexts, and contributions to the evolution of theatre. By presenting dramatic works that explore the complex histories, identities, and contemporary realities of this geopolitical territory, this program’s aim is to create a platform for facilitated dialogue between artists and audiences during post-reading talk backs.

Eastern Promises, as the first series, celebrates the resilience and creativity of Eastern European drama and theater, offering new perspectives and deepening appreciation for its unique contributions to the global stage.

The production team includes Gary Damico (Curator), Milan Pribisic (Dramaturg), Kasia Olechno (Stage Manager), Gus Thomas (Audience Outreach), Beata Pilch (Artistic Director).

Ukraine – January 25th, 2026 at 2PM

My Mama and the Full Scale Invasion

Written by Sasha Denisova

Translated by Micha Kachman

Adapted by Kellie Mecleary

Directed by Gary Damico

Featuring: Marzena Bukowska, Joan Nahid, and Carl Wisniewski.

A darkly comic, semi-autobiographical play that follows 82 year old Olha Ivanivna who refuses to leave Kyiv during the Russian invasion. She engages in absurd, heroic acts–from advising world leaders to downing drones with jars of pickles. Drawn from real wartime letters, this tragicomedy blends the domestic and the divine, finding dark humor, resilience, and fierce love in the face of terror.

Serbia – February 22nd, 2026 at 2PM

A Boat for Dolls

Written by Milena Markovic

Translated by Maja and Steven Teref

Directed by Gus Thomas

Milena Markovic’s Boat for Dolls is a postdramatic pastiche of fairy tale featuring the heroine, Woman, in her upside down initiation into the adult world dominated by male villains.

Poland – April 26th, 2026 at 2PM

House on the Border

Written by Slawomir Mrozek

Translated by Paweł Rudzki

A sharp absurd‐grotesque fable in which a family’s suburban home is suddenly bisected by a new national border, exposing how absurd and oppressive political systems turn ordinary life inside out.

Romania – May 17th, 2026 at 2PM

The Pit

Written by Matei Vișniec

Translated by Matei Visniec and Lesley Chamberlain

An absurdist allegory in which two men find themselves trapped in a deep pit, grappling with guilt, fear and the possibility of escape, while a mysterious third figure offers goods — and perhaps freedom — under ambiguous terms.

Serbia – June 28th, 2026 at 2PM

Utopia Trip

Written and Translated by Adam Rađelović

A quest for a true meaning of a search for utopia. The play challenges conventional storytelling while exploring themes of identity, society, and the human desire to escape the absurd.