The Catastrophic Theatre
First Suburb
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesFive preteens teeter on the brink of adolescence when a shocking and violent act interrupts their insular world of personal struggles and triumphs. Catastrophic favorite Chana Porter takes us back to the early ’90s in a suburban planned community, the first of its kind in America, for a subversive, mischievous, and oh-so-familiar (or is it?) …
Wakey Wakey
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesFrom the mind of Will Eno—once dubbed “a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation”—comes WAKEY, WAKEY, a play that calls to mind a stand-up routine performed at the edge of death that the New York Times called “glowingly dark, profoundly moving.” Through its lead character, a dying man named Guy, the play grapples inventively …
Bootycandy
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesRobert O’Hara’s semi-autobiographical and wildly subversive comedy tells the story of Sutter, a young gay black man on an outrageous odyssey through his childhood home, his church, dive bars, motel rooms, and his grandmother’s nursing home. At times poignant, shocking, hilarious, and wise, BOOTYCANDY is a kaleidoscope of scenes, sermons, sketches, and daring meta-theatrics. Winner …
Toast
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesTOAST takes audiences on a raucous and mind-bending journey through Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell! This original, collectively-realized work brings together eight members of Catastrophic’s acting company with groundbreaking director Brian Jucha, a key collaborator of Catastrophic’s predecessor company, Infernal Bridegroom Productions. TOAST completes a trilogy that started with 1997’s LAST RITES and 2002’s WE …
Speeding Motorcycle
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesAn all-time Catastrophic favorite returns! The original rock opera, based entirely on the songs of legendary outsider musician and artist Daniel Johnston, was originally performed to rave reviews in 2006 and received glowing coverage in the New York Times. SPEEDING MOTORCYCLE takes audiences deep into the astounding, hilarious, and heartbreaking world of one of America’s …
Tragedy, A Tragedy
The Catastrophic Theatre 1119 East Freeway, Houston, TX, United States"It's the worst world in the world here tonight, Frank." Reporting live on an unfolding crisis, Frank in the Studio is aided by his team of field: John in the Field, Constance at the Home, and Michael, the Legal Adviser. As the impending event approaches and chaos builds, the broadcasters reveal themselves to be all …
Baby Screams Miracle
The Catastrophic Theatre 1119 East Freeway, Houston, TX, United States"The weather has been bad since the beginning of time." With BABY SCREAMS MIRACLE, The Catastrophic Theatre introduces Houston audiences to one of the most exciting young playwrights in American Theatre, Clare Barron. A catastrophic storm engulfs the home of a small, religious family. An estranged daughter blows in with the storm and between falling …
The Book of Grace
The Catastrophic Theatre 1119 East Freeway, Houston, TX, United States"Sometimes the Alien is right in your own home. Sometimes right in your own blood. And you've got to build a wall around it." Grace is a waitress who lives in a small border town in south Texas with her husband Vet, a border patrol agent. She encourages Vet's troubled son Buddy to return home …
Tamarie 20/20
The Catastrophic Theatre 1119 East Freeway, Houston, TX, United StatesAfter a 2019 hiatus, Tamarie and her merry band of misfits are back again with an all-new, ridiculous, riotous musical! Escape the summer heat with Tamarie as she dives deep into TAMARIE 20/20. So what the hell is the title about? Is it a riff on a long running investigative television news show? A political …
THEY DO NOT MOVE by Brian Jucha with the Catastrophic ensemble
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesUsing found text, music, stylized physicality, and an abundance of pop culture references, THEY DO NOT MOVE winds its way through an imagined American future in which democracy has been defeated and a disorganized band of vagrants, waifs, and strays are hunted by monarchist forces. Their only defense? An expressionist cavalcade of song and dance. …
CLEANSED by Sarah Kane (Regional Premiere) at The Catastrophic Theatre
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesThe Catastrophic Theatre presents CLEANSED by Sarah Kane. In a former university, society’s “undesirables” are subjected to a series of tortures designed to test the limits of human love on the battlefield of the human body. Explosively aching, hauntingly poetic, and disarmingly tender, CLEANSED is a fever-dream fable of unimaginable brutality and miraculous beauty. CLEANSED …
It Is Magic
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesThe Catastrophic Theatre presents the Houston premiere of IT IS MAGIC by Mickle Maher. “Things are getting crazy at the local Playhouse…” Deb and Sandy are auditioning Tim for the role of the Wolf in an adult adaptation of The Three Little Pigs, but there’s a mysterious haze in the basement of the Mortier Civic …
CLEANSED by Sarah Kane
MATCH - Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston 3400 Main St, Houston, TX, United StatesThe Catastrophic Theatre presents the Regional Premiere of Sarah Kane’s CLEANSED April 5 through April 27 at MATCH In her brief, boundary breaking career Sarah Kane’s work prompted the term “a theatre of extremes,” yet CLEANSED comes soaked through with hope. Explosively aching, hauntingly poetic, and disarmingly tender, Kane delivers a fever-dream fable of unimaginable …