Photos and Video: OBLITERATION returns to Chicago

Obliteration, LLC & The Revival Theater are presenting a limited engagement of Obliteration, written by Andrew Hinderaker, directed by Jonathan Berry, featuring Michael Patrick Thornton and Cyd Blakewell. Obliteration runs April 10-May 4, 2025, at The Revival Theater.

Obliteration is a fusion of stand-up comedy and theater that tells the story of two comedians, Neal (Thornton) and Lee (Blakewell), trying to make sense of a world that's falling apart, even as their own lives are hanging on by a thread.

Obliteration played last summer to sold out audiences and rave reviews as part of Steppenwolf’s LookOut Festival and produced by The Gift Theatre in a production directed by Andrew Hinderaker. 

“I’ve loved stand-up comedy my whole life. But I’d never attempted to write it—I’m a playwright, not a comedian. Then a few years ago, I stumbled upon this quote from the brilliant Phoebe Waller-Bridge: ‘You get a lot for free from an audience if you can make them laugh.’ Immediately an idea for a play unspooled in my mind: a fusion of stand-up and theater that would tell the story of two comedians, whose lives were hanging on by a thread,” comments Andrew Hinderaker.