Review: EVERYTHING, DEVOURED at Sitar Arts Center

Picture former United States President Ronald Reagan as a demon drag queen summoned to the Chicago apartment of a group of twenty somethings. A bit bizarre to think about. On paper, the far-fetched, extraordinarily unique pitch shouldn’t work. Yet, in the world premiere production of Everything, Devoured, playwright Katherine Gwynn has created a superbly demonic play rooted in pure humanity. The intrigue piqued by the initially shocking premise is only the beginning.    

Even before its current world premiere production, presented by Nu Sass in Washington D.C., Everything, Devoured was a hit. The play boasted 2025 O’Neill Semi-Finalist and 2025 Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist titles before it had ever been staged. Now off the page, the play’s impact has only been amplified by co-directors Tracey Erbacher and Ileana Blustein in their production that breaks hearts, extracts howls, and mends souls within moments.

Cohesively underscored and dramatized by a curated soundtrack, Everything, Devoured drops audiences into a seemingly casual night amongst three friends in an apartment somewhere in Chicago. The abundantly intimate blackbox at Sitar Arts Center obscures any line between audience and stage exposing the timely piece even further. As the story unravels, Kore (June Dickson-Burke), her partner Julian (Tristin Evans) and her Best Friend Dante (Selena Renee Gill) – and later a simultaneously new and old friend, Michael (Christian David Harris) – have united to summon a demon. Everyone assumes it’s a bit, a joke even until Kore cements her seriousness. After your run of the mill pentagram drawing in animal blood on the floor of Kore’s apartment, the trio summon The Ronald Reagan (O’Malley Steuerman) reincarnated as a demon drag queen. After an exquisite dual number lip sync entrance from Steuerman, the real story begins.  

The choice of Reagan as the demon may outwardly appear haphazard, but it is anything but. Ronald Reagan’s relationship with the queer community is a difficult one specifically surrounding the AIDS epidemic. When the disease first drew US attention in 1981, it was near exclusively gay men who were affected. As a result, Reagan publicly ignored AIDS and instructed government agencies to do the same. By the time the administration finally addressed the deadly disease in 1987, over 20,000 Americans had already died. This context, succinctly spelled out by Dante in the show, texturizes the initially unusual proposal to emerge as distinctly powerful. 

From there, Gwynn’s book continues to blossom into a campy exploration of the queer experience packed with wit and community. The demon represents or unleashes something ostensibly alarming in each of the characters – paradoxically these final scenes instigate deeply moving performances from the entire ensemble. Tristin Evans as Julian evokes a grounded performance while Christian Harris as Michael powerfully chronicles one of many untold stories from the AIDS epidemic. It is clear that the true heart of Everything, Devoured, is the power of community.  Through this, the impeccably paced show never struggles for the audience's attention, every aspect is captivating in its ingenuity. 

It would be remiss to not call attention to the most poignant moment in the show executed with deep authenticity by June Dickson-Burke. Towards the conclusion of the 90-minute piece, Kore (a transgender woman from Kansas) delivers an evocative monologue evincing the ramifications of the hurdles and hatred transgender individuals have to endure daily. Their mention of the Kansas bill retroactively making it illegal overnight for transgender people to display their gender on a drivers license is particularly lingering. 

As a quite inexplicable, almost supernatural piece, Everything, Devoured leans heavily on lighting design by Vida Huang and rightfully so. From unsettling flickers to opportune flashes, lighting highlights shifting tone as the play progresses. 

 Everything, Devoured is anything but vague in its messaging, and that’s exactly what makes it stand out in an age of subtlety. This is a play that knows exactly what it is, an exploratory celebration of the queer community wrapped in past and present history. They say great things come in small packages, and the intimate Everything, Devoured presented by Nu Sass Productions is precisely that.

Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission

Warnings: Flashing lights and strobe are used in this production. 

Everything, Devoured presented by Nu Sass Productions runs until May 10th, 2026 at Sitar Arts Center, 1724 Kalorama Road NW, Washington, D.C. 20009.