Repertory Cast: Holly Cerney, David Lovejoy, Joan Nahid, Emily Nichelson, Keith Surney, Bob Wilson and Carl Wisniewski and Caleb Jenkins (swing).

Scenic Designer : J. Michael Griggs / Costume Designer: Rachel Sypniewski / Lighting Designer: Richard Norwood / Music Composer & Sound Designer: Danny Rockett / Choreographer: Miguel Long / Stage Manager: Kasia Olechno / Make Up Designer: Zsófia Ötvös / Graphic Designer: Michal Janicki

Directors

Nicole Wiesner (she/her) joined the Trap ensemble in 1999, and currently serves as the Managing Director. Directing credits for the company: Minna, The Fairytale Lives of Russian Girls, Phedre, Monsieur D’eon is a Woman, The Old Woman Broods, The White Plague, and Decomposed Theatre Episode 5. Some of her favorite Trap acting credits include First Ladies (dir. Zeljko Djukic, Joseph Jefferson Citation: Outstanding Actress); OVERWEIGHT, unimportant: MISSHAPE (dir. Yasen Peyankov); and the title roles in The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant; Nana (dir. Beata Pilch) and Alice in Bed. (Director Dado). Regionally, she has appeared at the Goodman Theatre in 2666, directed by Robert Falls and Seth Bockley; Shining City directed by Robert Falls; and Passion Play, directed by Mark Wing-Davy (After Dark Award, Outstanding Performance). Other credits include Shining City at the Huntington Theatre in Boston; Passion Play at Yale Repertory Theatre and Epic Theatre NYC; The Book Thief (dir. Hallie Gordon), South of Settling (dir. Adam Goldstein) and Dublin Carol (Dir. Amy Morton) at Steppenwolf Theatre; Dying City (dir. Jason Loewith) at Next Theatre, Great Men of Science (dir. Tracy Letts) at Lookingglass Theatre; and Phedre (dir. JoAnn Akalitis) at The Court Theater.

Miguel Long (Director) (he/him) joined the Trap Door ensemble in 2018. Miguel is a Chicago native theater artist and recently directed The Buttcracker: A Nutcracker Burlesque and Sex and the Windy City: A parody musical. He is honored and excited to be collaborating with Nicole Wiesner again, having previously collaborated directing and choreographing The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey and Nana. Trap Door acting credits include Bowie in Warsaw (dir. Paweł Swiatek), Medea Material (dir. Max Truax), The Old Woman Broods and Monsieur d’Eon is a Woman (dir. Nicole Wiesner), and And Away We Stared (dir. Skye Fort and Mike Steel). Music Video choreography credits include: Weight (dir. Dave Holcombe). Trap Door Choreography credits include: The White Plague, Joan and the Fire, Medea Material, and Lipstick Lobotomy.

The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey

Trap Door in Repertory

Written by Sławomir Mrożek

Directed by Nicole Wiesner and Miguel Long

A family’s life is turned upside down when a tiger suddenly appears in their bathroom. As more and more absurd characters invade their home (a Scientist, a Government Official, a Tax Collector, and more), the family must decide whether or not to give in and join the circus.

Nominated for a Jeff Award for best Original Music in a Play, The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey examines how we cope when the world around us becomes a circus and we are the ones to pay the price. Now playing in repertory.

September 19th – 28th and June 26th – 28th

First up is a revival of The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey, which first played in 2022, and is now back even tighter and more focused. …The Martyrdom of Peter Ohey is extremely high energy throughout… The whole cast sings, dances, fights, and does magic tricks.

Jacob Davis, Around the Town Chicago

Playwright

Sɫawomir Mrożek (Playwright) was a Polish playwright born in 1930 in a small town near Kraków.  He started his professional career as a cartoonist and journalist, and later on wrote many grotesque stories.  His first play, The Police (1958) is a Kafkaesque parable, and was followed by a series of political, critical allegories cloaked in absurdist comedy such as Out at Sea (1961), Striptease (1961) and The Party (1963).  His most famous play from this period is Tango which had its world premiere in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in January 1965. That same year a famous Polish critic Jan Kott observed that while Stanislaw Ignacy Witkiewicz and Witold Gombrowicz, Mrożek’s dramatic predecessors, were ahead of their time, Mrożek has arrived right on time both in Poland and in the West. Some perceived Mrożek as a kind of “Polish Ionesco” as his plays poke absurdist fun at contemporary mores and life in the 20th century communist-dominated Poland. Mrożek emigrated to France in 1963 and lived in Italy and Mexico before returning to Poland after the fall of communism. While his plays were periodically banned in Poland, they were performed in the cities around the world including New York City where they were produced several times off Broadway and at La MaMa Theatre Club. Among other plays written by Mrożek are Vatzlav (1972—produced at Trap Door Theatre in 2014), The Emigrés (1974), The Ambassador (1981), Alpha (1984) and Love in the Crimea (1994). Mrożek died in France in 2013.

Cast: Venice Averyheart, Dennis Bisto, Natara Easter, Matty Robinson, Keith Surney, Bob Wilson, and Carl Wisneiwski.

Lighting Designer: Richard Norwood / Set Designer: Michael Griggs / Costume Designer: Rachel Sypniewski / Original Music and Sound Design: Danny Rockett / Make-up Designer: Zsofia Otvos / Graphic Designer: Michal Janicki / Understudy/Swing: David Lovejoy / Stage Manager: Anna Klos