The Russia-Ukraine War began in 2014, with Russia launching a full-scale invasion in 2022. It is estimated that total casualties (including the dead, wounded, and missing) across both militaries surpass two million. Roughly 10 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes. All with remarkably little accomplished on either side. Slava Ukraini! (or Waiting for Elon) is the story of three soldiers, two Ukrainian and one Russian, trapped in the bombed-out Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol, Ukraine days before the siege ends. All coincidentally, lovers of Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings. All desperately trying to survive. All trying to find some meaning for their actions, and the actions of their countries. Vitaly, the younger Ukrainian soldier, is convinced that Elon Musk will come to save them.
Two estranged half-brothers – one in Grangeville, one in Amsterdam – reconnect virtually in discussions surrounding care for their ailing mother. A play about the fallibility of memory, the stories we tell to make sense of our suffering, and the complexity of forgiveness.
Eddie Cappiello is trapped living out his life in the Out With A Bang Senior Living Community. When his ex-wife Betty – recently widowed from her second husband – arrives at his door one day and asks him to help her get revenge on a neighbor who has made her life intolerable, Eddie, longing to reawaken the love he and she once had, makes the fateful decision to help. He enlists his good friend and next-door neighbor, a former Israeli accountant and professional mourner, Daniel, and the three of them devise a dangerous and blatantly illegal plot to deal with her recalcitrant neighbor.
Painted Ponies honors the courage and love of a mother who is haunted by past mistakes. While making peace with regret, she creates a portrait of a woman who tried her best to be human in an inhumane world.
Hailed as “raw, honest, and intricately woven,” this play is an unflinching exploration of grief and resilience as it follows a mother standing defiantly in the wreckage of her life, refusing to let loss have the final word.
Rogue Machine has a longstanding relationship with the work of Samuel D. Hunter, having previously produced the West Coast premieres of A Bright New Boise, A Permanent Image, and Pocatello, as well as the Southern California premiere of A Great Wilderness. Following Hunter’s recent Tony nomination for Little Bear Ridge Road, we are thrilled to present the Los Angeles premiere of this intimate, deeply moving play about two fathers who form an unexpected bond through shared vulnerability, parenthood, and economic uncertainty.