Original Stage Play

Winter 2025

The Monotonist

A Staged Reading

The PREMIERE STAGED READING of THE MONOTONIST at EAST VILLAGE BASEMENT

PERFORMANCES @ 7:00pm Feb. 28th, 7:00pm March 1st & 3:00pm March 2nd

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The Monotonist is a dystopian, existential, absurdist play that grapples with the plight of the average worker and the neglectful selfishness of the wealthy. Guy Lorry is an everyman living an endlessly repetitive life until he unintentionally is let in on a secret that could mean the end of everything and everyone in the brutalist megacity he calls home. Over the next days he falls down a spiral of discovery and disillusionment that ultimately leads to what? You’ll have to come see the play LIVE to find out.

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

When I wrote the first draft of The Monotonist in 2020 an incompetent egomaniac was president and we were in the middle of a global pandemic. Today the same incompetent egomaniac is president again, forests and cities are burning, and the 1% control most parts of our lives through the government and their companies. This play was originally meant to be something wholly original and my own, a dystopian fable inspired by the art that inspired me. However, in the years since the idea came to me, the story has become something beyond myself. The characters and meaning of the story evoke our current reality much more than Iever intended or even wanted, but how can we change our reality if we refuse to accept it as it truly is, right? The play is absurdist, in that it is a humorous reflection of the reality of living in the world today. So please laugh, enjoy and I hope you leave disillusioned and thoughtful.

- Theo Billups

CAST & CREW