Pictured: (top, l to r) Martin McDonagh and Jennifer Rumberger (bottom, l to r) Naomi Iizuka and Lavina Jadhwani.

The Gift Theatre has announced the three shows that will make up its 2020 season – a revival of Martin McDonagh’s masterpiece THE PILLOWMAN; the Chicago premiere of Naomi Iizuka’s drama AT THE VANISHING POINT, directed by Lavina Jadhwani; and the world premiere of Jennifer Rumberger’s drama THE LOCUSTS, commissioned and developed by The Gift.

The Gift’s season begins in January with TEN (January 9 – 19, 2020), the theater’s annual roundup of world premiere ten-minute pieces by The Gift and guests, curated by Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton and Associate Artistic Directors Paul D’Addario and Emjoy Gavino.

“Whether to turn pain into power or honor our loved ones, the stories we tell can be our prison as well as our refuge,” comments Thornton, D’Addario and Gavino. “Story attempts to put a frame around the un-frameable and remind us who we are. It is an arguably impossible task, which makes its undertaking noble and full of grace. From a thriller in a police state to a sublime ghost story in Butchertown, Louisville to a murderous mystery in Vero Beach, Florida, The Gift’s 2020 Season exalts the role of the Storyteller in our society and their power to maybe just save us all.”

The Gift Theatre’s 2020 Season includes:

February 27 – April 5, 2020
THE PILLOWMAN
By Martin McDonagh

THE PILLOWMAN is a dark, twisty and utterly unforgettable masterpiece from one of Ireland’s most treasured writers. In an interrogation room in an unnamed totalitarian dictatorship, Katurian Katurian, a writer, is being interrogated by two detectives. The detectives want to know why Katurian’s stories feature gruesome plots about child murder and torture, and in particular, why they seem to mirror a string of recent child murders in the area.

June 11 – July 19, 2020
AT THE VANISHING POINT
Chicago Premiere
By Naomi Iizuka
Directed by Lavina Jadhwani

How do we remember a part of our history at the moment that it’s slipping away? How do we give voice to the ghosts that haunt us as individuals and as a community? This stunning portrait of a community weaves together historical fact, myth and memory to give voice to people who would otherwise exist only as faded images in an old photo album.

October 8 – November 15, 2020
THE LOCUSTS
World Premiere
By Jennifer Rumberger

When a serial killer goes on a gruesome rampage in Ella’s small hometown of Vero Beach, Florida, she’s called up from her busy career in the Miami police force to help apprehend him. At home, she’s confronted with the life she left behind: her pregnant and struggling sister, her scared young niece, who like Ella, is desperate to find a life somewhere else, and the dark events of her childhood that she’s tried to forget. As the murders grow more horrific and the small community is frozen by fear, Ella realizes she has to confront the events of her dark past in order to stop him.