H.M. Koutoukas’ Medea of the Laundromat Revival

An ancient Greek tragedy set in a laundromat that unfolds in a 1960s coffeehouse.

With a wildly surreal style of drama, H. M. Koutoukas (1937–2010) was a prolific playwright who wrote 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.