Top Row: (From left) Ericka Ayche’le, Justin Broom, Jean E. Mueller-Burr & Catherine Councell; 2nd Row: Seth Eggenschwiller, Sydney Genco, Rafael Lopez & Courtney Marie; 3rd Row: Allison McCorkle, Johnard Washington, Jack Bowes & Topher Payne
Ghostlight Ensemble is pleased to announce the cast and production team of our fall production Angry Fags by Topher Payne.
The play, a not-easy-to-define gay crime/political thriller/drama/dark comedy, examines what happens when the persecuted take up arms in what was previously a political war of words mired in oppression and bigotry.
The cast of Angry Fags is: Ensemble Members Justin Broom as Bennett Riggs and Jean E. Mueller-Burr as Kimberly Phillips with Catherine Councell as Senator Allison Haines, Sydney Genco as Deidre Preston, Rafael Lopez as Cooper Harlow, Ericka Schingoethe as Peggy Musgrove and Johnard Washington as Adam Lowell. Understudies are: Ensemble Member Courtney Marie with Seth Eggenschwiller and Allison McCorkle.
The production team is: playwright Topher Payne, director Jack Bowes, production management Justin Broom and Chad Wise, stage manager Haley Welch, scenic and props designer Nora Brooks-Slauter, lighting designer Chelsea Streb, projections and sound designer Connor Blackwood, costume designer Savana Nix, fight and intimacy choreographer Claire Yearman and marketing Maria Burnham with casting help from Holly Robison.
In Angry Fags, a white lesbian state senator is up for re-election in Georgia. Her female opponent is a Black moderate conservative who has aligned herself with right-wing extremists. They’re locked in a tight race in which each side caters to its base and any event can become instantaneously politicized.
When a gay man is bashed with a baseball bat and left to die, his ex-boyfriend, a campaign aide for the incumbent senator, is enraged. But his boss’s unwillingness to label it a hate crime tips him over the edge. Frustration and fear eventually turn to rage, and he teams up with his best friend to embark on a vendetta of sabotage and more, reasoning that if gays aren’t respected enough to win justice, fear will achieve what good intentions and politics cannot.
Angry Fags asks what do we do with our righteous anger? Who do we turn to when we exist within a system that does not protect us, care for us, or keep us safe? Angry Fags is a story of two gay men grappling with these questions and more, as they navigate what justice means to them, to the queer community, and how far they’ll go to fight for it.
Director Jack Bowes says, “When we are taught that the ability to enact violence means power, why are we surprised when the powerless wield it as a tool of resistance? And yet Audre Lorde taught us that ‘the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.’ As fascism crests the horizon of our political landscape, as our communities are increasingly surveilled, as technology further isolates us, what are our options? I hope we can create new tools. And I really hope we can dismantle this entire house, before it’s too late.”
Angry Fags was last produced in Chicago in April 2015 by Pride Films and Plays as part of the Steppenwolf Garage Rep Series.
But Payne re-wrote the cautionary dark comedy in 2019 to reflect the aftermath of the election of the 2016 election and felt that the story being told in his play could not exclude the discussion of race. Concerns about gender, race and sexual orientation do not exist in the bubble, but are all part of the same story of oppression.
Angry Fags will take place at Lifeline Theatre (6912 N Glenwood Ave, Chicago, IL, 60626) on Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. November 7-23, 2025. A preview performance is scheduled on Friday, November 7.
Tickets are pay-what-you-will, with an average donation of $25. Audience members who are financially able to donate more help offset the cost for those who can’t afford to give. For the preview performance, the suggested donation is $10.
Angry Fags is part of Ghostlight’s season celebrating otherness and uplifting Queer characters and voices. Season 9 is centered on the theme, Love As A Verb, and is inspired by a passage from All About Love by bell hooks: “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb.”
More information about Angry Fags can be found at www.ghostlightensemble.com/angry-fags.
Ghostlight Ensemble acknowledges support from the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Angry Fags is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com.