Bug Returns to Launch 2021/22 Season

BUG... In a seedy Oklahoma motel room, a lonely waitress begins an unexpected love affair with a young drifter. And then they see the first bugs. Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning ensemble member Tracy Letts’s mind-bending cult classic — a luridly funny tale of love, paranoia, and government conspiracy — roars back to post-pandemic lockdown Chicago for its Steppenwolf return.

The Local Tourist ticket to the press viewing of BUG courtesy of Steppenwolf Theatre.

BUG… In a seedy Oklahoma motel room, a lonely waitress begins an unexpected love affair with a young drifter. And then they see the first bugs. Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning ensemble member Tracy Letts’s mind-bending cult classic — a luridly funny tale of love, paranoia, and government conspiracy — roars back to post-pandemic lockdown Chicago for its Steppenwolf return.

BUG (Photo by Michael Brosilow)
BUG (Photo by Michael Brosilow)

Directed by Tony Award winner David Cromer, the cast of this highly anticipated Steppenwolf retun features ensemble members Randall Arney (Dr. Sweet), Carrie Coon (Agnes White) and Namir Smallwood (Peter Evans) along with Chicago favorites Jennifer Engstrom (R.C.) and Steve Key (Jerry Goss). Its debut run cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, BUG has returned to Steppenwolf as a launchpad for its new season.

BUG (Photo by Michael Brosilow)
BUG (Photo by Michael Brosilow)

Tracy Letts shares: “BUG explores folie à deux, a psychological term that means the madness of two—it’s when one person literally catches another person’s psychosis, which also seemed to me kind of like love…It’s a love story. BUGhas primarily been done in really small spaces, normally in theaters of 100 seats or fewer, so to see it in our theater with the caliber of our actors and David Cromer directing…I can’t wait.”

BUG (Photo by Michael Brosilow)
BUG (Photo by Michael Brosilow)

Without giving away too many details, we can say the BUG is a twisted and dark journey of descent into mental illness. It takes the audience places inside inflamed human mind that are frequently taboo. By taking that journey though we get to experience the alienation and isolation of mental illness as closely to first-hand as potentially possible. We get to be there with the play’s characters all the way through, from the first sign of symptoms to complete devastation.

BUG (Photo by Michael Brosilow)
BUG (Photo by Michael Brosilow)

The play is a mind twister, a dark tunnel that sucks you in and keeps you in its grip the whole way. As the curtain drops, take a breath. I am willing to bet you have been holding it since intermission. BUG is imminently worth seeing.

Steppenwolf Theatre is located at 1650 North Halsted Street in Chicago’s Clybourn Corridor.

Steppenwolf is part of the growing coalition of Chicagoland performing arts venues and producers that have agreed upon COVID-19 vaccination and mask requirements for all audiences, artists and staff through the end of 2021. Learn more about Steppenwolf’s policies at steppenwolf.org/welcomeback.

In addition, Steppenwolf will be offering the following reduced capacity performances for BUG, seating every other row and one seat on either side of each party: Sunday evening November 21, Wednesday evening November 24 and Wednesday matinees December 1 & 8.