The Pragmatists

Trap Door Theatre is thrilled to open its 30th anniversary season with a new adaptation of Stanislaw Witkiewicz’s dark and shockingly absurd chamber piece, The Pragmatists. Directed by guest director Zeljko Djukic, The Pragmatists will play September 21 – October 28, 2023 at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W Cortland St. in Chicago. Tickets are now on sale at trapdoortheatre.com or by calling (773)-384-0494.

In a setting that is at the same time a torture chamber, a chamber of the heart, and a chamber for a virtuoso recital, two former friends struggle for domination in an existential conflict. They share the same dilemmas, the same collapsing world, the same despair; they are “pragmatists” because instead of facing the ultimate mystery of existence, they attempt to find pain-killing evasions, which dooms them to live the past over again while experiencing the future in advance.

After his previous directing triumphs of First Ladies and Judith: A Parting from the Body, TUTA founding Artistic Director Zeljko Djukic returns from Serbia to Trap Door to direct Witkiewicz’s first ever published piece.