See Alex Winter, Chris Myers, Ben Natan in Conversation After SLAUGHTER CITY Performance

Small Boat Productions has revealed that actor and filmmaker Alex Winter and actor and cultural worker Chris Myers will join Small Boat’s Artistic Director Ben Natan for a conversation following the October 13 performance of Slaughter City by the award-winning playwright Naomi Wallace.

Mixing reality and dream, the radical and the mystic, Slaughter City is a searing drama about life in the meat-packing industry. It was first produced in 1996 by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. The long overdue New York premiere is presented by Alex Winter, produced by Small Boat Productions, and directed by Reuven Glezer. Running October 4-18, 2025, at A.R.T./New York Theatre’s Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre, the production is set to open on Monday, October 6. Tickets are currently on sale.

On Slaughter City making its way to a New York stage, playwright Naomi Wallace commented, “Slaughter City was first produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 1996, and after all these years, it will finally have its premiere in New York City. I’m thrilled that Small Boat will bring this play to life again. While Slaughter City touches on dangerous work and turbulence on the shop floor, it is also a hallucinogenic and darkly comic look at a history of resistance that has long been distorted.”

Director Reuven Glezer, who makes their Off-Broadway debut with this production, said, “In the words of the late Athol Fugard, Slaughter City embodies a theatre that uses the human voice, real flesh, real time. We’re diving headfirst into a world across the ages, across bodies, and I can't wait for audiences to come with us to the deep end.” Small Boat Productions launched in 2024 with a celebrated revival of Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty at the Flea.

On following up that production with Slaughter City, Small Boat Productions’ Artistic Director Ben Natan declared, “Now is not the time to be safe in our art making. Safe in process, yes. Safe in how the artists feel, absolutely. But the type of art that is being made, the stories we are telling, and the people we are telling them alongside... there needs to be risk. Slaughter City shows us that getting there is messy business. Blood and guts, to say the least. Small Boat is not afraid of messy business, or taking risks, or spilling our guts a bit. This was a company founded on creating that better world in theater and making the fight for it irresistible to artists and audiences alike. I am so thrilled about this play, the team of badass theater workers who will bring it to the stage, and how audiences will join us in our little theatrical rebellion.”

The ensemble cast for Slaughter City includes Lucy Buchanan, Gil Charleston, Le’Asha Julius, Gabrielle Kogut*, Ben Natan* (Richard III), Nicolas Eric Sanchez*, KP Sgarro and Alan Simon*, along with Mario C. Brown, Jacob Dysart, Catt Filippov, Raven Jeannette, and Soph Metcalf who serve as understudies.

The creative team includes Forest Entsminger (scenic design), Hannah Bird (costume design), Celia Krefter (lighting design), Emma Hasselbach (sound design), Emily Johnson-Erday (composer & musician), Jonathan Schatzberg (props designer), Alexandra Haddad (intimacy & fight director), Maya Jeyam (assistant director), Miranda Tejeda (stage manager), Tessa Ramirez-Keough (assistant stage manager), Honigman & Sons (line producer), and AJ Liu (associate producer).

Sixteen performances of Slaughter City will take place October 4-18, 2025 at A.R.T./New York Theatre’s Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre, which is located at 502 W 53rd St in Manhattan. Critics are welcome as of October 4 for an opening on Monday, October 6. The performance schedule is Monday and Wednesday–Friday at 7pm, Saturday at 2pm and 7pm, and Sundays at 2pm with an additional performance at 7pm on Sunday, October 5. Tickets, which start at $25 for general admission and $35 for reserved seating, can be purchased at www.art-newyork.org.