Thinking Theater NYC

piss.jpg (Working Title) Written and performed by Justin Jager and Michael Gardiner Directed by Daniel Yaiullo Presented by Diamond Mesh Inc. at the Paradise Factory 64 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC July 16-August 9, 2026 Justin Jager and Michael Gardiner. Photo courtesy of Strange Garden Productions Two brothers, one kitchen, and seventy minutes of absurdism taken to hilariously absurd lengths: the endlessly unpredictable piss.jpg (Working Title) showcases a pair of writer-performers firing on all comedic cylinders. Written by Justin Jager and Michael Gardiner and directed by Daniel Yaiullo, multi-hyphenate theater artists all, the eye-catchingly titled production is making its New York City premiere as a flagship production of Diamond Mesh Inc.'s new summer festival, The Manifestival , running from July 16th to August 9th at the Paradise Factory Theater. piss.jpg (Working Title) plucks fragments from the sort of plots and dialogue that might be found in midcentury drama, adds the...

atticwife Written by Laura Clare Browne Directed by Rebecca Wilson Presented by RnL Productions at 59E59 Theaters 59 East 59th Street, Manhattan, NYC July 22-26, 2026 Jen Clark and Laura Clare Browne. Photo by Lutriz Studios. The most famous wife-locked-in-an-attic is probably Jane Eyre 's Bertha Mason, whose fatal leap from the roof after setting her husband's house on fire conveniently clears the way for her successor. Even when given a sympathetic reimagining by Jean Rhys over a century later, it's hard to see her as an aspirational figure. However, in atticwife , the debut play from actor and comedian Laura Clare Browne, the titular wife has not only been locked in an attic by her husband but assures her social media followers that this is what she wants. Currently playing as part of 59E59's 2026 East to Edinburgh Festival , which showcases New York shows headed to Edinburgh Fringe in August, atticwife furnishes a sharply observed, darkly comedic lampoon of the int...

Woyzeck Written by Georg Büchner Translated by John Christopher Jones Directed by Seth Bockley Assistant director: Debbie Saivetz Presented by Adult Film at Modern Sweater 4-78 Onderdonk Ave, Ridgewood, Queens, NYC July 15-August 15, 2026 Front: Madeline Bernhard and Ryan Czerwonko. Photo by Geve Penn.  In the introduction to his 1971 edition of Georg Büchner's (1813-37) surviving plays, Victor Price calls Woyzeck , composed from late 1836 into early 1837 and left incomplete when the playwright died from typhus at age 23, "the first working class tragedy" (xviii). While the extant plays by Büchner– Danton's Death , comedy Leonce and Lena , and Woyzeck , with Pietro Aretino having been lost–share a sort of existentialism avant la lettre among their primary characters, Woyzeck represents an outlier among this small group in terms of its style. If Woyzeck is unfinished (though Price argues, in the Appendix to his edition, that it was quite close to its final form), ...

Syringe Written and directed by Francis Bogan Assistant Directors: Lauren Presley and Gabby Laurendine Producer: Eliza Spinna Presented at Chain Theatre 312 W. 36th St., 4th fl., Manhattan, NYC July 11-30, 2026 Art by Ryan Prehara. IG: @seminalspider  While most horror media ends with the survival–or not–of its protagonist(s), some, such as parts of the Scream franchise or Grady Hendrix's 2021 novel The Final Girl Support Group , considers what happens after that moment of survival. The one-act Syringe , from Brooklyn-based playwright Francis Bogan, joins this less typical strand of horror narrative with its darkly comic look at a group of friends who undergo a Saw -style ordeal. Deftly satirizing our era of true-crime proliferation and internet-driven self-commodification while asking what friendship should look like, Syringe is currently making its premiere at Chain Theatre's Summer One-Act Festival, running from July 9th through August 1st. Syringe is part of Block 18 in ...

What a World! What a World! Written by Eric Marlin Directed by Ilana Khanin Presented by The Tank 312 W 36th St., Manhattan, NYC July 9-August 2, 2026 Queen-Tiye Akamefula and Annie Hoeg. Photo by Maria Baranova. Film studies brought us the concept of the heterosexual male gaze as the default mode of looking in media, implicit in how the camera mediates between the image and audience, and the new play What a World! What a World! , uses an old movie to anchor its thinking about the gaze, both in (the) film and in the world. What a World! What a World! , by Eric Marlin, explores being seen, self-presentation, the inscription and interpretation of texts and bodies and bodies as texts, all in relation to queerness and camp. Making its world premiere at The Tank after previous workshopping at Ars Nova ANT Fest in 2019 and the Prelude Festival in 2023, What a World! What a World! stages a smart, surprising sixty-five minutes of slippery boundaries and contested perspective. Queen-Tiye Akame...

Misterman Written by Enda Walsh Directed by Labhaoise Magee Presented by Origin Theatre Company at Theatre Row 410 W 42 St., Manhattan, NYC June 23-July 5, 2026 With a new production of Enda Walsh's Misterman , the newly renamed 2026 Origin Irish Theatre Festival (formerly Origin 1st Irish), under the new leadership of Artistic Director Labhaoise Magee and Executive Director Aidan Cleary, Origin Theatre Company returns to the show with which it made its debut 24 years ago, a play whose protagonist restages his own past. Misterman is the centerpiece of Origin's 2026 festival, which runs from June 16th through July 5th and features a concert, staged readings, and a gala in addition to the full production of Misterman , all celebrating Walsh, a transformational voice in contemporary Irish drama. Misterman was first performed in 1999 in Cork, with the playwright also performing, and returned in a revised version (now starring Cillian Murphy) in 2011 at the Galway Arts Festival,...

 A Comedy of Errors Written by William Shakespeare Adapted and directed by David Fuller Presented by Theater 2020 at The Great Room at A.R.T./New York 138 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC June 12-27, 2026 L to R: Amelia Corrada, Robert J. Dyckman, KoDee Martin, Linda Elizabeth, David Arthur Bachrach, Eileen Glenn, Justino Brokaw, Sabrina Kalman, Francoise Traxler, Jenna Hochkammer. Photo: John Hoffman. Sometimes theater sheds light on enduring issues in society and human existence; sometimes it’s pure entertainment. We need both—to see anew the most challenging aspects of life and to laugh. Theater 2020’s charming 75-minute adaptation of Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors presents the classic tale of mistaken identity anew. With a cleverly streamlined script and a versatile, talented cast, Theater 2020’s A Comedy of Errors is a laugh-out-loud good time from start to finish. Life is hard; laughter is a priceless antidote that the best theater can provide to take away ...

Syrian Soap Written and performed by E. Zaalan Directed by Tallie Medel Original direction and co-devising, dramaturgy by Natasha Mercado Presented by National Queer Theater and HERE Arts Center at HERE Arts Center 145 6th Ave, Manhattan, NYC June 24-27, 2026 Not a lot of shows tell the audience that they can stick around and hang out in the pool afterward, but then, the current production of E. Zaalan's Syrian Soap gets the interactivity started even before the performance begins, with spectators given bubble wands and offered tea during that pre-show period. The pool in question, inflatable and filled with clear bubble wrap and beach ball "water," represents part of the Intergalactic Bathhouse, the form taken by the afterlife in this marvelous solo show. In the fabulously funny Syrian Soap , Zaalan, a stand-up, clown, and conflict mediator, plays both a long-deceased ancestor and (a version of) themself in a masterful piece of clowning that is also an articulation of...

Catch of the Day Written by Megan Jenkins and Red Fox Theatre Company Directed by Megan Jenkins Presented by Red Fox Theatre Company at 59E59 Theaters 59 East 59th Street, Manhattan, NYC June 10-28, 2026 Jonty Weston, Anna McCormick, Callum McGuire, and Ben Simon. Photo by Carol Rosegg. A subgenre of the tall tale, the "fish story" is exactly the kind of entertainingly improbable yarn that you might expect to hear over some pints in a convivial pub setting like that of Red Fox Theatre's Catch of the Day , except that its particular fish story is true. Inspired by a 2013 RTÉ radio documentary that Red Fox supplemented with its own interviews with locals who were involved and some of whose recorded voices appear in the show, Catch of the Day recounts an uproarious, live-music-infused version of the story of some fishermen who made an extraordinary catch off the small Irish port town of Dingle in 1966. Framed as a tale being dramatically reenacted by a quartet of enthusiast...

Clay Mommy Written by Aviva Pearl Ocean Creation Directed by Lili Rosen Presented by FRIGID New York  at UNDER St. Marks 94 St. Marks Pl, Manhattan, NYC June 4-7, 2026 When Hana, the titular Clay Mommy appears, clad in brown bodysuit with אמת ( emet ) written across her forehead, she looks less like a miracle than a wish that has gone too far. The hardest thing about family, Clay Mommy suggests, is that the people we need most can never fully become what we need them to be. Written by Aviva Pearl Ocean Creation, directed by Lili Rosen, and presented by FRIGID New York at UNDER St. Marks, Clay Mommy is a funny, painful, and deeply Jewish meditation on care, dependency, and the risks of trying to shape another person into an answer for our loneliness. The production uses the stripped-down confines of UNDER St. Marks to fine effect. A backpack, a sparkling dress, and a sculpture in progress do much of the visual storytelling. The minimalism works because the play's real landscape is...

Metal Soul Mercy Written by Maci Zakarin Directed by Hana Lauer Ensemble Choreography by K-A Nassoura Duet Choreography by Maci Zakarin Fools Rush In Choreography by Mariama Condé Presented at The Slipper Room 1167 Orchard St., Manhattan, NYC June 2, 2026 Before Metal Soul Mercy reveals its showgirls to be machines, it gives the audience a chance to fall in love with them. In its one-night-only production at The Slipper Room, that proves enough. The evening begins with Olive (Mariama Condé) peeking through the curtain, unable to resist the gathering gaze. It is a small gesture, playful and inviting, but it encompasses the entire production in miniature. The Ladybugs want to be seen; they need to be seen. And soon enough, we meet the girls – performers who have only ever known life under the spotlight, “born in fishnets and a bustier.” Maci Zakarin’s Carolina jokes that she was born addicted to applause, and the line lands as comedy, but it also announces the play's central concer...

In the Devil's Hands Written and directed by Helen Banner Original Music by Joshua Dumas Presented by A/Park Productions at Zoopraxic 11-51 44th Rd, Long Island City, Queens, NYC May 20-June 14, 2026 Rory Greenwood and Umer Khan. Photo by Diego Quintanar. There is something undeniably attractive about the idea of removing oneself from society to live in independent solitude, and, unlike the protagonist of new play In the Devil's Hands , most of us don't even have as compelling a motivation for such fantasizing as being suspected of murder. In the Devil's Hands , by Helen Banner, Creative Director of Zoopraxic, a new arts space in Long Island City, takes inspiration from the story of Alphonse Le Gastelois (1914-2012), a resident of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands and a British Crown Dependency. In 1961, Le Gastelois exiled himself to an island in the Écréhous reef, six miles from Jersey, after having been targeted as a suspect in a series of sexual assaults ...

Julius Caesar Written by William Shakespeare Directed by Jonathan Hopkins Assistant Director: Sundiata Fotso-Chinjé Presented by Smith Street Stage at Carroll Park President St., Brooklyn, NYC May 16-June 7, 2026 Photography by Sam Sulam Summer means Shakespeare in NYC, and of all of the productions to choose from, Smith Street Stage’s annual offerings in Carroll Park, Brooklyn are always a must-see. Even on an unseasonably cool and damp night, this year’s offering, Julius Caesar , has the power to captivate not only those who came to see it intentionally but also dog walkers and other passersby. If Shakespeare’s time seems remote from our own, the Romans who feature in this play were four times as removed from Elizabethan England as Elizabethan England from today. And yet, as Shakespeare made Julius Caesar speak to its contemporaries, so does Smith Street Stage for us today. Featuring both Smith Street Stage veterans and newcomers, the cast is extraordinarily versatile. Save fo...