Classic plays are great (after all, they’re classics for a reason), but there’s nothing wrong with a departure from the canon to explore plays outside the mainstream. Here’s a look at 10 quirky plays you probably won’t see on Broadway but are worth knowing about. Some are serious, some are silly, but they’re all unique.
1) MilkMilkLemonade
Joshua Conkel’s take on death and gender is entirely offbeat but surprisingly poignant at the same time. With minimal technical requirements and a flexible ensemble cast, MilkMilkLemonade could be a good fit for community theatres looking for darkly funny off-the-wall shows. One thing to note: the play is definitely for more mature audiences.
2) Circle Mirror Transformation
A windowless dance studio may not sound like an enthralling setting for a play, but playwright Annie Baker fills a seemingly nondescript space with characters who are anything but. Circle Mirror Transformation has an ensemble cast of five characters in an adult acting class led by the vivacious Marty. As Marty leads the four strangers through sometimes-absurd acting exercises and they begin to reveal themselves, their lives suddenly change. The play is a fascinating character study that’s sometimes bitingly funny and sometimes achingly poignant.
3) bobrauschenbergamerica
Charles Mee creates his plays using found text-existing poetry, literature, or quotes. He fashioned bobrauschenbergamerica as a tribute to pop artist Robert Rauschenberg. The play has an ensemble cast of colorful characters: the derelict poetry fan Becker, Phil, a folksy trucker, and Allen, a scientist obsessed with space. The play is a road trip through Americana as seen through Rauschenberg’s eyes, with the text crafted in the same way Rauschenberg created his art. You can access the full script here.
4) Night Watch
Just in time for spooky season, Lucille Fletcher’s Night Watch is a psychological thriller with hints of film noir. Wealthy heiress Elaine Wheeler wanders around her New York City townhouse one night, unable to sleep. She witnesses something horrific in the apartment across the street, but nobody can find any evidence that it actually happened. As Elaine’s terror grows, so does the suspense as it becomes obvious that things aren’t what they seem.
5) Tigers Be Still
Kim Rosenstock’s sardonic comedy about the tedium of modern life has an absurdist worldview that millennial audiences will find particularly relatable. The play opens with the news that a tiger has escaped the local zoo and could be anywhere within 100 miles. Meanwhile, sisters Sherry and Grace have bigger concerns. Both are battling crippling depression, but Sherry is trying to move on while Grace is content to lay on the couch, drink, and occasionally break into her ex-boyfriend’s condo to steal things.
6) Guards at the Taj
He may be best known for Gruesome Playground Injuries, but Ravjiv Joseph has a wide body of plays worth knowing about. Like much of Joseph’s work, Guards at the Taj is an ensemble play that asks probing and sometimes difficult questions. It’s set at the Taj Mahal in 1648. Two Imperial Guards assigned to stand watch over the newly constructed monument are asked to do the unthinkable. In the aftermath, they’re both left to reckon with what friendship and duty really mean. The play is a gripping, sometimes excruciating look at the cost individuals pay for an architectural masterpiece.
7) The Outsiders
S.E. Hinton’s coming-of-age novel and the movie adaptation aren’t exactly little-known, but Christopher Sergel’s play version doesn’t get as much attention. Nevertheless, if you’re looking for a good stage adaptation, The Outsiders might just fit the bill. It follows the source material with some changes to make it easy to produce and accessible for high schools and community theatres. With fluid, theatrical storytelling, there are plenty of opportunities for set, lighting, and sound designers to get really creative.
8) 12 Angry Villains
This one is a great pick for anyone needing a play for young audiences. A parody of the play Twelve Angry Men, 12 Angry Villains finds Peter Pan on trial for murdering Captain Hook. Fairy tale characters like Goldilocks, Big Bad Wolf, and the Sheriff of Nottingham also appear. It’s a great way to introduce young audiences to a variety of other stories and teach character work at the same time. As a bonus, Wade Bradford’s Twelve Angry Pigs is another fun parody for young audiences with flexible casting.
9) The Baltimore Waltz
Paula Vogel wrote this darkly comedic satire after her brother died from complications of AIDS. Using an absurdly fictional disease, Acquired Toilet Disease, Vogel makes a searing commentary about the U.S. government’s response to the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. When Anna is diagnosed with Acquired Toilet Disease, she puts aside her phobia of traveling for a romp through Europe with her brother Carl. Like a lightning bolt, The Baltimore Waltz zips from surreal sitcom to realistic drama with a bittersweet revelation.
10) Passion Play
With three acts that take us to three different periods in three different countries, Sarah Ruhl’s epic drama is a hefty piece of theatre. Each act chronicles the members of a community and what their performance of the Passion Play means to them. The play is full of magical realism and calls on an ensemble cast to play multiple characters and don multiple dialects. It also offers a good study on the connection between war, politics, and religious tradition.
