MEDEA OF THE LAUNDROMAT Comes ot La MaMa With John-Andrew Morrison, Jason Howard, and Jenne Vath

La MaMa, in association with the Lucille Lortel Theatre, will present a rare revival of H.M. Koutoukas' Medea of the Laundromat, a seminal work of theatre from 1965. Directed by Arthur Adair, Medea of the Laundromat and, more broadly, the work of H.M. Koutoukas gave birth to the Off-Off-Broadway theater movement and established “camp” as an enduring genre. Performances of Medea of the Laundromat run June 12–22, 2025 at La MaMa's The Club (74A E 4th St, Manhattan). 

Tony-award nominee John-Andrew Morrison (A Strange Loop) takes on the title role of Medea in this revelatory new production. He is joined onstage by Jason Howard and Jenne Vath, fellow members of The Experimentals, a performance group that was founded by La MaMa Resident Director, the late George Ferencz (1947-2021), in 1999.

Medea of the Laundromat is an ancient Greek tragedy set in a laundromat that unfolds in a 1960's coffeehouse. This “ritualistic camp” premiered in 1965 at Café La MaMa before moving on to Caffe Cino & Theatre Genesis. The Village Voice referred to the production as so “eccentric as to be nearly unthinkable. The play is an enactment of the final terrible scene when Medea murders her child… Medea is the very heroine of old–fanatical, hideous, wronged, ecstatically suffering. But the action is set in a laundromat.” The following year, H.M. Koutoukas received an Obie Award for “Assaulting Established Tradition.”

With a wildly surreal style of drama, H. M. Koutoukas (1937–2010) was a prolific playwright who had 150 Equity-approved extravaganzas and 40 one-act pieces produced. He presented outrageously stylized characters, equipped them with arch dialogue and set them loose in outlandish situations. He obeyed no rules but those that one of his characters called “the ancient laws of glitter.” He produced at a furious rate, turning out three plays a year in the 1960s and 1970s. Many were presented on less than a shoestring at La MaMa and the Caffe Cino. Props and flats were scavenged from the street. Often the actors were, too.

“H.M. (Harry) Koutoukas was a Christopher Street legend,” remarked Harvey Fierstein in his 2022 memoir, I Was Better Last Night. “Pulling inspiration from the same catalog of Technicolor movies as filmmaker Jack Smith while adding a level of the Oscar Wilde aesthete, Harry created ebullient scripts that always began, ‘As the curtain rises…' Sadly none of the Off-Off-Broadway venues producing his stuff ever had a curtain.”

The company for Medea of the Laundromat includes Arthur Adair and Federico Restrepo (scenic design), Sally Lesser (costume design), Federico Restrepo (lighting design), Arthur Adair (sound design), Dakota Silvey (production stage manager), and Victoria Villier (wardrobe).

Eight performances of Medea of the Laundromat will take place June 12–22, 2025, at La MaMa's The Club, located at 74A East 4th Street in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of June 12, which also serves as the official opening. The anticipated running time is 74 minutes with no intermission. Performances take place June 12, 13, 14, 20, 21 at 10pm; June 15, 22 at 5:30pm; and June 16 at 7:30pm. General admission tickets are $30 and $25 for students or seniors. The first 10 tickets to every performance are $10 each. Tickets are available at www.lamama.org.

Performances of Medea of the Laundromat are made possible, in part, with lead support from Brigitte Vosse. Produced by special arrangement with the Estate of H.M. Koutoukas.