Ahoy, you scurvy lot!
We’re full speed ahead toward Opening Night of the World Premiere of Strange Cargo: The Doom of the Demeter at City Lit Theatre, this Saturday, 10/18/2025! In spreading the word, I got a chance to chat with Dean Richards at Chicago’s WGN Radio on Sunday 10/12! You can hear the interview RIGHT HERE (starting at 1:01 and running to 1:09). Dig it! And get your tix fast – presales are hopping!
BE THERE OR BE ABSENT!
Ahoy, you lot!
It is with great joy and excitement that I direct you to the official cast announcement of the World Premiere of STRANGE CARGO: The Doom of the Demeter, playing this fall at City Lit Theatre!
BE THERE OR BE ABSENT!
Hey you lot! I can now officially announce that my new play, STRANGE CARGO: The Doom of the Demeter will World Premiere this fall as part of City Lit Theater’s 45th Season in Chicago, Illinois!
Based on Chapter Seven of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, this gothic horror high seas adventure tells the shocking events aboard the cargo ship transporting Count Dracula’s belongings from Transylvania to England. Suspicion, paranoia, and madness infect the crew as the harried sailors disappear one by one. Full of creeping mystery, vibrant language, rich characters, sinister vanishings, violent sea storms, swashbuckling action, monstrous puppetry, and, of course, a boatload of terrors, this is the Dracula tale you’ve never seen.
Here’s the link to the lit to the City Lit page: https://www.citylit.org/ A co-production with Black Button Eyes Productions, the play will be directed by the amazing Ed Rutherford and Sound Designed by my criminally talented brother Joe Griffin! Watch this space for ticket info!
BE THERE OR BE ABSENT!
Hey gang – It thrills me to tell you that as part of their Junior Play Festival, Chagrin Falls Academy for the Performing Arts (Chagrin Falls, OH) will be performing my short play – Once Upon a Time… In Denmark! Performances are March 11th & 12th. Anyone in Ohio – go check it out!
Get tix here: https://www.chagrinacademy.org/
Tuesday, February 11th at 7:30 PM, at City Lit Theatre, 1020 W Bryn Mawr Ave, Chicago, IL.
Twenty-three years before the events of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Yorick, a brilliant young jester, infiltrates Elsinore on a quest for revenge against Denmark’s Lord Chamberlain (and deadly spymaster), Polonius. Full of comedy, sword fights, romance, juggling, heartache, horror, and an array of Shakespearean touchstones turned slightly askew, this love letter to the Bard is akin to such Shakespeare-adjacent plays as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and The Book of Will.
ONE NIGHT ONLY! FREE ADMISSION!
FEATURING
Courtney Abbott Caty Gordon
Douglas Bryan Bean Timothy Griffin
Ross Compton Jamie Redwood
Shelley DeHosse Troy Schaeflein
Michael Dias Chad Wise
AND
Dan Hitzemann
BE THERE OR BE ABSENT!
Get your tickets ASAP here: YORICK
Hey Gang,
The mighty mighty Monstrous Books is coming out with another exciting short story collection, “Shakespeare Unleashed” – all horror stories based on Shakespeare plays! I submitted a sonnet to them, a nasty little piece based on Richard III. While they didn’t choose it for their collection, I thought I might post it here for your enjoyment.
The sonnet tells the fates of Richard’s young nephews – whom he arranged to be murdered so as to clear his path to the throne. Told from the point of view of the younger prince, the sonnet’s closing couplet reveals the boys’ ghosts tormenting Richard on the eve of the battle at Bosworth Field.
I hope you dig it! I had a lot of fun writing it, and it might spawn more Shakespeare Horror stories or sonnets that I post here – watch this space!
So, here’s a little bit of chilling verse for you called…
To Worry Lambs and Lap Their Gentle Blood
by Timothy Griffin
My brother Edward’s twelve; I, only nine;
Yet no more years shall either of us gain;
White, wriggling worms anon on us shall dine.
Our killers’ tears imply ‘twill be some pain.
“Condemn us not; we two are merely pawns,”
Implores the villain pinning Edward down.
“We must deprive thee both of further dawns,
For thou standst ‘twixt thine Uncle and the crown.”
Then Edward lieth still, in murdered sleep.
My knave doth blench, beseeches me for grace,
Then blubbers sobs; he hath the gall to weep
As he doth press the pillow to my face.
Now shades, we stare with bleak, transparent eyes.
At ‘G’ we glare, and shriek – “DESPAIR AND DIE!”
© Timothy Griffin 2022
Leave a comment below & spread the word!
Update 02/03/2020: You can hear the performance of “Dead Ringer” from the 2016 Deathscribe show here.
This year’s Deathscribe competition has chosen another of my plays to battle for the coveted Bloody Axe award! “Dead Ringer” will be directed by Aileen McGroddy and featuring actors Dave Fink, Lee Brophy and Darren Hill.
Monday, December 5, 2016 @ 8pm
Lincoln Hall
2424 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL 60614
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