M: REFRACTIONS FROM AN EVIL ACT To Be Presented By Exiled Theatre

Exiled Theatre has announced that 2026 is the year they will be returning from our long hibernation to present a world-premiere play to Boston audiences, M: Refractions from an Evil Act. The production marks a reuniting of the creative team behind Exiled Theatre’s IRNE-nominated production of Nurse Play and is possible in part because of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s New Play Incubator program.

A late-night return. A hotel room that feels…wrong. Traveling abroad, a woman’s unease after a night out deepens into something far more insidious. The staff watches too closely. A man appears, disappears and reappears. Time loops, memory fractures and the past begins to repeat itself. As identities blur and reality destabilizes, she must escape the hotel before she’s trapped by its history.

“Gearing up for this production has been a somewhat surreal experience,” says playwright James Wilkinson. “Firstly, the play is loosely based on a rather disastrous three days I spent by myself in Paris back in college. A few details have been changed for storytelling purposes, but not much. Now, years later, just hearing the play read takes me back to that very disorienting time. Secondly, the play has been sitting in a drawer, ready to go for a few years now. When I finished it, I didn’t think it would be something Exiled would produce but when the BPT Incubator program came up, the team realized that the benefits of the program would make something like this possible. Now that we’re in it, every new element just gets me more excited. Even when I was writing the play, I had been hoping that it would be another opportunity for Joe and I to work together again. He’s such a brilliant director. He’s game for anything and creates a rehearsal room that encourages collaborative effort.” 

"Exiled Theatre has always felt like my first artistic home since I moved to Greater Boston in 2016,” says director Joe Juknievich. “Directing the world premiere of James Wilkinson's Nurse Play was a formative experience in my career, and it shaped the kind of artist I wanted to become. Returning to collaborate with James, Exiled Theatre, and Boston Playwrights' Theatre on M: Refractions from an Evil Act feels both like a homecoming and an exciting new chapter. This play is visceral, funny, and deeply thought provoking. It asks audiences to sit with ambiguity, resist easy answers, and wrestle with what it means to make sense of violence and memory. In a year that has seen Greater Boston embrace horror and psychological thrillers through productions like BLACK SWAN, The Mystery of Irma Vep, and Paranormal Activity, I'm excited for audiences to experience this bold and singular new work."

The show features Sydney Grant, Julia Hertzberg, Tim Hoover and Peter Tone.

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