LIKE FLIES: A RAGE PLAY Comes to Portland Stage

Portland Stage will present the world premiere production of Like Flies: A Rage Play written by Maggie Kearnan.  Performances run March 4 - March 22, 2026.

When a mysterious new midwife comes to town, a group of women think she might have solutions for more than just childbirth. She might also have something to remedy an epidemic of cruel men. New alliances are formed and each woman wonders who she can trust in this thrilling play. But when men in town start dropping like flies the gossip begins to swirl and people wonder, what do the midwives have in those little bottles? Loosely based on The Angel Makers of Nagyrév, Like Flies: A Rage Play by Maggie Kearnan follows a group of women who decide to take matters into their own hands regarding violent, despicable men.

The Grand Prize Winner of the 2024 Clauder Competition for New England Playwrights. Maggie Kearnan is a Boston-based playwright and multi-hyphenate theater artist. Her plays have been produced at Boston College, Newton Theatre Company, and Boston Playwrights' Theatre. Maggie writes about characters clumsily trying to make the world a better place. Her plays have ghosts, murder, primal screams, Catholic guilt, climate anxiety, nature, music, dance, laughter, friendship, and family. Her optimistic apocalyptic comedy The Plume is the first runner-up for the Earth Matters on Stage Festival 2025–26. How to Not Save the World with Mr. Bezos was produced in the Boston Playwrights' Theatre Fall Rep Festival in November 2024 and at Great Barrington Public Theater in 2025. Like Flies: A Rage Play was workshopped as part of the 2025 Little Festival of the Unexpected at Portland Stage. 

Directed by new work connoisseur at Portland Stage, Sally Wood, who brings a warm energy to a thrilling subject. On stage we are featuring the return of Cynthia Barnett*, last seen in Portland Stage's production of Senior Living in 2022 and Catherine Buxton appearing in the memorable performance of Callie Kimball's Perseverance in 2021. New to Portland Stage include DeAnna S. Wright*, Luz Lopez*, Carina Higgins, Jordan Hurley* & Kelly Chick*.

Like Flies: A Rage Play asks big questions about what it means to use violence for our own gains, and who, and what we become when we do.

CAST:

Edna Ingram - Cynthia Barnett*
Meg Dooley - DeAnna S. Wright*
Retta Longwood - Catherine Buxton
Polly Platt - Luz Lopez*
Lenny Rutledge - Carina Higgins
Julia Winship - Jordan Hurley*
Vee Malcolm - Kelly Chick*

PRODUCTION: