The Methuselah Tree
By Jayme McGhan

Directed by Sarah Norris

Cockroach Theatre is excited to announce its first Las Vegas production in over a year and the first in its season of defiant theatre; The Methuselah Tree, an absurdist dark comedy, by nationally recognized playwright Jayme McGhan.

Seven years from now, in the basement laboratory of a family home, Harris, a metaphysical scientist obsessed with spiritual death, will invent the world's first bionic soul. Once ingested, the device will seek out the soul within the body, destroy it, and replace it, ultimately erasing all transgression and leaving humanity completely free of sin. Harris' wife, Murielle, a sort of architect, has her own fixation with building massive towers. Jeremy, their young teenage son, is infatuated with the decapitation of small rodents and a strange specter, The Man in the Attic, who resides in the upper floor of the family home. The family soon witnesses the true nature and the awful effects of Harris' creation. Will Murielle's fight to regain her family and the love they once shared bare fruit? Or will the branches of love wither and die with their attempts to save themselves from the approaching darkness?

The play comes to Las Vegas after a remarkable run at the Minnesota Fringe Festival.

"I can't remember the last time I've seen such an intense work of theatre."

"It cries out, 'Push aside your apathy for one moment and fire your synapses, feel something genuine!' Unlike most absurdist plays, this one presents a new hope, a deep hope."

"High-energy, high concept, very funny, and at times quite scary."