City Lit’s 45th season will continue in October with the world premiere of Timothy Griffin’s STRANGE CARGO: THE DOOM OF THE DEMETER, a co-production with Black Button Eyes Productions. Gothic horror meets high seas adventure in this piece inspired by the seventh chapter of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA. As the tale unfolds, Captain Gorodetsky of the Russian schooner THE DEMETER accepts the belonging of a certain Count aboard, for transport from Transylvania to England. When his loyal crew begin to vanish one by one, Gorodetsky must confront the grim possibility that this voyage may be his last. This original work will be directed by the Producing Artistic Director of Black Button Eyes Productions, Ed Rutherford, a four-time Jeff Award nominee for direction and writing. The thrills will arrive for the Halloween season, with a press opening Saturday, October 18 following previews from October 10. It will play at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr Avenue, and play through November 23.
Leading the cast as Gorodetsky, the ship’s Captain, will be Brian Parry (he/him), the veteran Chicago actor who earlier this year appeared in City Lit’s R.U.R. (ROSSUM’S UNIVERSAL ROBOTS). At Redtwist Theatre Parry has played such iconic roles as Willy Loman, Richard Nixon, and King Lear. The ship’s crew will be played by a cast of actors who have been busy on Chicago stages in the past year: Alex Albrecht (he/him, THE CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOUIS LE PRINCE - The Factory; DRINK THE PAST DRY - Ghostlight Ensemble) as Chief Mate Basarab; Robert Howard (he/him, Jeff Award: SEVEN GUITARS - City Lit) as Second Mate Post; Ross Compton (he/him, SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL - Idle Muse) as Ship’s Cook Bucatar; Nathaniel Kohlmeier (he/him, AMADEUS - Parker Players) as Ship’s Hand Petrovsky; Riles August Holiday (he/him, INCOGNITO - Tin Drum Theatre Company) as Ship’s Hand Olgaren; Andrew Bosworth (he/him, THE CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOUIS LE PRINCE - The Factory, and SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL - Idle Muse) as Ship’s Hand Abramoff; Jennifer Agather (she/her, THE WINTER’S TALE - Invictus Theatre) as Ship’s Hand Mister Gusa; and Cameron Austin Brown (he/him, SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL - Idle Muse, GARY - Redtwist) as Ship’s Hand Munir. Herb Metzler (he/him, BERNHARDT/HAMLET - Resident Theater at Edge of the Wood) will play the mysterious Yorga, a servant of Dracula. Understudies are Benjamin Jouras (he/him), Mitchell Shaw (he/him), and Erin Alys (she/they).
Top Row L-R: Jennifer Agather, Alex Albrecht, Andrew Bosworth, Cameron Austin Brown, Ross Compton.
Lower Row L-R: Riles August Holiday, Robert Howard, Nathaniel Kohlmeier, Herb Metzler, Brian Parry.
The production team, in addition to Rutherford as director, includes Ruby Lowe (they/them, Scenic Designer), Beth Laske-Miller (she/her, Costume Designer), Liz Cooper (she/her, Lighting Designer), Joe Griffin (he/him, Sound Designer), Victor Bayona and Rick Gilbert of R&D Choreography (Violence Designers), DJ Douglass (they/any, Projection Designer), Jeremiah Barr (he/him, Properties and Puppet Designer), Carrie Hardin (she/her, Dialect Coach), Matt Klingler (he/him, Technical Director), Bruce Bennett (he/him, Scenic Painter), and Hazel Flowers-McCabe (she/her, Stage Manager). Brian Pastor (they/them) is City Lit Theater Executive Artistic Director.
Single tickets for individual Season 45 productions are priced at $30 for previews and $38 for regular performances and are on sale now. Senior prices are $5.00 off regular prices. Students and military are $15.00 for all performances. Tickets may be purchased online at www.citylit.org, or by phone at 773-293-3682.
LISTING INFORMATION
STRANGE CARGO: THE DOOM OF THE DEMETER
By Timothy Griffin
Adapted from the novel DRACULA by Bram Stoker
Directed by Ed Rutherford
A co-production with Black Button Eyes Productions
World Premiere
October 10-November 23, 2025
Previews October 10 - 17
Press Opening Saturday, October 18 at 7:30 pm
Regular run October 18 - November 23
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sundays at 3 pm
Mondays, November 10 and 17 at 7:30 pm
Tickets $30 for previews and $38 for regular performances. Senior prices $5.00 off regular prices. Students and military are $15.00 for all performances.
Tickets available online at www.citylit.org or by phone at 773-293-3682.
All performances at City Lit Theater, 1020 W. Bryn Mawr, on the second floor (accessible via elevator) of the Edgewater Presbyterian Church.
Based on Chapter Seven of Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, this gothic horror high seas adventure tells the shocking events aboard the cargo ship transporting Count Dracula’s belongings from Transylvania to England. Suspicion, paranoia, and madness infect the crew as the harried sailors disappear one by one. Full of creeping mystery, vibrant language, rich characters, sinister vanishings, violent sea storms, swashbuckling action, monstrous puppetry, and, of course, a boatload of terrors, this is the Dracula tale you’ve never seen.
BIOS
Timothy Griffin (he/him, Playwright) is a Chicago playwright and actor, and an Honors graduate of Illinois State University. His plays, including MURDER IN MIRTHBURG, TICKLEBRAINS, RE: ALICE, and ONCE UPON A TIME… IN DENMARK! have been performed in Chicago, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Kansas City, Miami, and Chagrin Falls (Ohio). He was a four-time finalist in the Deathscribe International Festival of Horror Radio Plays, and his screenwriting work includes the short films THE CELLAR JOB and SNARE, as well as the cult creature feature TAIL STING. Favorite acting work includes the titular roles in HAMLET and RICHARD III, DIAL M FOR MURDER (Tony), BOOTH (Junius Booth), THE BOOK OF WILL (Burbage), and THE LAST DAYS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT (Satan). He is also a writer of novels and short fiction and is an accomplished musician and fight choreographer.
Ed Rutherford (he/him, Director, Black Button Eyes Producing Artistic Director) is the Producing Artistic Director of Black Button Eyes Productions, where directing credits include GHOST QUARTET (Jeff Nomination: Director of a Musical), EVIL DEAD THE MUSICAL (Jeff Nomination: Director of a Musical), SHOCKHEADED PETER, DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG, AMOUR, GOBLIN MARKET, and CORALINE, as well as his scripts NIGHTMARES & NIGHTCAPS, A SHADOW BRIGHT AND BURNING, and MARY ROSE (Jeff Nomination: New Work). Promethean Theatre Ensemble: artistic associate, where he directed THE LIAR, his adaptation of Peter S. Beagle's THE LAST UNICORN, THE CAUCASIAN CHALK CIRCLE and BEYOND THERAPY. Book & Lyrics: the parody musical MURDER, REWROTE and MARY ROSE. As an actor, he's performed with City Lit, Drury Lane Oakbrook, Porchlight, Theater Wit and many others. A graduate of Northwestern's theater program, he also completed his MBA at Kellogg. ed-rutherford.com
Brian Pastor (they/them, City Lit Executive Artistic Director) Brian Pastor is a trans/non-binary director, actor, playwright, and Jeff Award-winning producer (AUGUST WILSON’S SEVEN GUITARS), and the Executive Artistic Director of City Lit Theater. Brian previously spent ten and a half years on staff at City Lit, including nine as Managing Director. From 2019 to 2024, Brian served as City Lit’s Resident Director, where they directed THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, THE PLAYBOY OF THE WESTERN WORLD, ARMS AND THE MAN, J.B., and their own acclaimed adaptation of Robert Kennedy’s THIRTEEN DAYS. Most recently, Brian directed the World Premiere of Bo Lists R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) and the Chicago Premiere of Reina Hardy's GLASSHEART. Brian is a founder and Emeritus Artistic Director of Chicago’s Promethean Theatre Ensemble, where they directed THE LION IN WINTER, THE WINTER’S TALE, and GROSS INDECENCY: THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDE (all Broadway World Award Nominated- Best Director), as well as HENRY V and THE DARK SIDE OF THE BARD. Brian also directed the world premiere of THE BLACK KNIGHT by Angeli Primlani, the inaugural show for Lifeboat Productions. As an actor, Brian has worked with Strawdog, Raven, WildClaw, Promethean, Accomplice, and City Lit, among others. Brian is the former Executive Director of Sideshow Theatre and the former Executive Director of Raven Theatre. They also served as a board and company member of The Mime Company and as a founding company member of Chicago dell’Arte. A Pittsburgh native, Brian has called Chicago home since their graduation from Northwestern University in 2003.
ABOUT CITY LIT THEATER COMPANY
City Lit is the eighth oldest continuously operating theatre company in Chicago, behind only Goodman, Court, Northlight, Oak Park Festival, Black Ensemble Theatre, Steppenwolf, and Pegasus theatres. It was founded in 1979 with $210 pooled by Arnold Aprill, David Dillon, and Lorell Wyatt. For its current season, its 45th , it operates with a budget slightly over $200,000. It was the first theatre in the nation devoted to stage adaptations of literary material. There were so few theatres in Chicago at the time of its founding that at City Lit’s launch event, the founders were able to read a congratulatory letter they had received from Tennessee Williams.
For four decades and counting, City Lit has explored fiction, non-fiction, poetry, memoirs, songs, essays and drama in performance. A theatre that specializes in literary work communicates a commitment to certain civilizing influences—tradition imaginatively explored, a life of the mind, trust in an audience’s intelligence—that not every cultural outlet shares.
City Lit is located in the historic Edgewater Presbyterian Church building at 1020 West Bryn Mawr Avenue. Its work is supported in part by the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events CityArts program. An Illinois not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) federal tax-exempt organization, City Lit keeps ticket prices below the actual cost of producing plays and depends on the support of those who share its belief in the beauty and power of the spoken written word.
ABOUT BLACK BUTTON EYES PRODUCTIONS
Black Button Eyes Productions’ mission is to bring to Chicago premieres and seldom-seen works containing elements of fantasy, in which the magical and surreal invade reality. The company was founded in 2014 with the acclaimed Midwest premiere of the musical CORALINE and is led by Producing Artistic Director Ed Rutherford. For more information: www.blackbuttoneyes.com