Ben Kaye

Ben Kaye

Director, performer, words, music.
Theatre and film.
Chicago-based.
(he/they)

Plays

  • Dead Sheep. by Ben Kaye
    Cast: 
    10–12
    ·
    Genre: adaptation, political
    ·
    Keyword: ancient greek, Meta-theatrical + 1 more
    Genre: adaptation, political
    Keyword: ancient greek, Meta-theatrical, comedic drama
    In Sophocles' classic play AJAX, the eponymous soldier is tricked by the Gods into murdering a flock of sheep that he takes to be his fellow Grecian soldiers. But what the hell does the Chorus think about all this mess? Why doesn't Eurysaces have any lines? Where the hell does Athena go after the first scene? Who is this play for anyway?
    DEAD SHEEP is a comedy (until it isn't) about the...
    In Sophocles' classic play AJAX, the eponymous soldier is tricked by the Gods into murdering a flock of sheep that he takes to be his fellow Grecian soldiers. But what the hell does the Chorus think about all this mess? Why doesn't Eurysaces have any lines? Where the hell does Athena go after the first scene? Who is this play for anyway?
    DEAD SHEEP is a comedy (until it isn't) about the characters left on the sidelines of classic Greek tragedies, and how the real drama isn't always front and center.
  • today i saw a bird and watched you fly away with it. by Ben Kaye
    Cast: 
    2
    ·
    Genre: drama, zoom
    ·
    Keyword: contemporary romance, digital technology
    Genre: drama, zoom
    Keyword: contemporary romance, digital technology
    *10-MINUTE PLAY*
    Roxie invites Sean to a work call over Zoom on Saturday.
    It's not about work.

    A short play about being alone and being together and the absolute terror of it all.
    Also birds.

Recommended by Ben Kaye

  • Kubrickian by Zack Peercy
    7 Nov. 2023
    “ More than just a play about a specific film director, KUBRICKIAN examines how men talk to - and with - each other, and how monotonous and lonely of an experience that can often be, distilled into pop culture analysis and droll small talk shorn of any truthful emotional connection. And then, yes, it is also about Stanley Kubrick, and how fractured his legacy and reputation have become, all before building to a final set-piece that genuinely reckons with how expansive and life-affirming his works stand for a specific generation of people. As totemic and baffling as, well, a Kubrick film. ”
  • The Sporting Life by Marjorie Muller
    24 Aug. 2023
    “ For those looking for their feminist theater to have a little bit more bite, more menace, more complexity, more vicious humor, and a whole lot more blood. Muller's arch look at the societal expectations of womanhood gets twisted and tangled up in a larger-than-life way, creating a hyper-real world still steeped in the truth and tragedy of what it means for a girl to grow up. God bless whoever figures out how to stage this thing, but it'll be so worth it. It's what the theatre needs right now. ”
  • PLEASE LAUGH by Sarah Jae Leiber
    13 Jul. 2023
    “ A play committed to pure entertainment and engagement in the most sensational and deranged fashion. Absolutely steadfast in its mission of presenting a superbly heightened, yet overly familiar world of entertainment, making the audience a complicit participant in the mania of the story. Uncomfortable and gut-punching, and maybe one of the funniest treatises on the corruption of contemporary fame out there. ”
  • The Trade Federation, or, Let's Explore Globalization Through the Star Wars Prequels by Andy Boyd
    26 Apr. 2021
    “ The Trade Federation is the absolute best of contemporary playwriting: critically and unabashedly analyzing our pop culture through a political lens in a way that is daring, incisive, and absolutely hilarious. By the time we arrive at the play's grand, communal finale, it's impossible not to be hooked into this world of grand anti-capitalist analysis and George Lucas apologia. You'll never watch a Star Wars film the same way again, and for the better! ”
  • Red Clay Halo by Andy Boyd
    26 Apr. 2021
    “ A powerful work of community-building, an epic theatrical conversation between race, religion, and politics. Boyd's theatrical instincts shine in creating worlds of ephemeral storytelling and grounded character-building. A play that sings - literally and spiritually - and looks to our past to build a stronger future in solidarity. I cannot wait to see this play come alive one day soon. ”
View all 8 recommendations