BOHEMIAN RAT CITY
Full-Length Play; 90 Minutes
Bohemian Rat City
God watched the sinners. God got mad. God turned them into human-rat hybrids. How unfortunate.
​
Told through prose and verse, BOHEMIAN RAT CITY focuses on the driving force behind religion, exploring what makes a person choose to believe in any form of deity. This piece came out of a playwriting course in the spring of 2019, focusing on spectacle, diction, and rhythm. This concept was further developed in late 2019, with the devised piece
RATS: THE MUSICAL, produced by Loyola University Chicago's Second Stage Program.​​
BOHEMIAN RAT CITY received a reading with the Fox and Spade Ensemble as a part of its Lonely Arts Club event in February, 2025. It featured performances by Liz Freeman, Tom Cannon, Bri Murray, and Elizabeth Johnson, and was directed by Scout Cloud
Watch the 10-Minute Version!
Poster by Scout Cloud
BOHEMIAN RAT CITY was developed into a full-length work in 2025, and received its first reading with Two Chairs Theatre Co. as a part of their Intermission event. The play was performed alongside Alexander Attea's WE GO LIQUID.
​
The reading was directed by Nic Russo and was performed by Adam Register (Madden), Marq Parks (Charlie), Oreoluwa Onasanya (Sage), Nic Russo (Ara), Ronee Goldman (Snitch), Danny Peterson (Scab), and Liz Gordon (Stage Directions).
Watch the full play!
REVIEWS
"Darkly funny and boldly absurd, Bohemian Rat City skewers human folly with bite and wit. Smith’s inventive verse and unapologetic satire create a sharp, timely comedy that’s as unsettling as it is entertaining."
— Danielle Wirsansky, New Play Exchange
"Bohemian Rat City adopts an absurd voice on the pitfalls of humankind while simultaneously maintaining a comic flair. Painting in dark colors, Maggie Smith delivers an engaging twist to the "why do bad things happen to good people" quandary, which resonates amid today's political climate. I was also drawn to the verse structure of this piece, evocative of fate and free will tragedies. Quick and biting, this play adds a parenthetical question mark to the age old adage "this too shall pass."
— Noah Tibbetts, New Play Exchange
"Wait. That was fire."
— Unknown Audience Member,
The Lonely Arts Club