REVOLUTION STAGE COMPANY

Cockroaches is a piercing Southern Gothic dark comedy that crawls under your skin and lingers like the humid air of a Mississippi summer. Written by Emma Schillage, this unsettling family drama follows three sisters trapped in the decaying remains of their childhood home as they grapple with their mother’s latest—and most theatrical—suicide attempt. The walls of their clapboard house seem to breathe with memories, while something far more sinister stirs beneath the floorboards.

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Since returning from the hospital, Momma has been behaving erratically—her mood swings as volatile as the summer storms that rattle their roof. Eldest daughter Jenny, the family’s reluctant anchor, has abandoned her college dreams to return home, her resentment simmering beneath a veneer of responsibility. Middle child Charlie, all sharp edges and defiance, acts out in increasingly dangerous ways, her rebellion a desperate cry for attention in a house where Momma’s crises always come first. And youngest Sissy, wide-eyed and fragile, watches it all unfold, mirroring her mother’s self-destructive tendencies with terrifying precision.

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But this is no ordinary family drama. The house itself feels alive, its shadows shifting unnaturally. Whispers echo from empty rooms, and the sisters begin to see things—figures moving just out of sight, something skittering in the walls. Are these manifestations of their unraveling psyches, or something far more literal? As their mother’s humanity fades into something unrecognizable, the sisters must confront not only her decline but the monstrous reality taking root in their home.

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Blending wickedly dark humor with visceral horror, Cockroaches is a twisted love letter to sisterhood and survival. The play’s surreal elements—reminiscent of Grey Gardens meets The Others—serve as a metaphor for inherited trauma, mental illness, and the cyclical nature of family dysfunction. With its richly drawn characters and creeping dread, the story forces audiences to ask: What happens when the people who are supposed to care for you become the monsters you fear? And how do you break free before the rot consumes you, too?