The Deodand, or: The Rat Play
By Justice Hehir
Directed by Joan Sergay
Digital Reading premiere: October 23rd, 2023
And then on demand 10 days after.
Cast for the reading: Molly Carden, Layla Khoshnoudi, Keshav Moodliar, Suzy Weller
About the play
A would-be birthday hang for Rae’s 33rd at a delightfully grim dive bar gets derailed when Diana, her best friend, decides to assist a rat stuck to a glue trap in the bathroom. A real-time play about rat-wrangling, neurodivergence, and everything we can and cannot see about the people we love the most.
Prior devo of the play:
Developed at New York Theatre Workshop in the Adelphi Residency 2023, Ensemble Studio Theatre in the Bloodworks Reading Series 2023, and New Georges in the Audrey Residency 2023-2024
About the Playwright
Justice Hehir
Justice Hehir is a playwright whose work explores sexuality, feminism, and the mechanics of vulnerability. She is a member of Youngblood at EST, a New Georges affiliated artist/2023/24 Audrey Resident, a 2023 Adelphi Resident with NYTW, and an alumna of the Clubbed Thumb Early Career Writers Group. She received a Clubbed Thumb Constitution Commission from Heidi Shreck and the producers of “What the Constitution Means to Me” in 2021, and with the support of New Georges co-authored “the wish: a manual for a last-ditch effort to save abortion in the united states through theater,” a free, downloadable play about abortion rights released May 2022. She is currently under commission by Lin Manuel Miranda’s Family Foundation, along with her co-authors, creating a companion piece for “the wish.” She graduated from Hunter College in 2018 with an MFA in Playwriting (under the tutelage of Annie Baker and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins) and from Rutgers University/Douglass College in 2016 with a BA in Women’s and Gender Studies and English.
About the Director
Joan Sergay
Joan Sergay is a Brooklyn-based director of new work, originally from Washington, D.C. She has directed and developed work at New York Theatre Workshop, Clubbed Thumb, Ensemble Studio Theater, Colt Coeur, Penguin Random House, Geffen Playhouse, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Westport Country Playhouse, New York University, Columbia University, The University of California San Diego, Wagner College, Two Headed Rep, Dixon Place, Forestburgh Playhouse, and Art House Productions. She has associate and assisted directors including Les Waters, Danya Taymor, Margot Bordelon, and Lee Sunday Evans at Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre, The New Group, The Play Company, Primary Stages, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Studio Theatre, and Rivendell Theatre. Joan is a New Georges Affiliated Artist, a 2023 Audrey Resident at New Georges, a 2023 New York Theatre Workshop Adelphi Resident, and a former Directing Fellow at Clubbed Thumb, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Actors Theatre of Louisville. BA: Northwestern University