SAINT MEGAN – Rogue Machine
Reviewed by Amalisha HuEck
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Empty stage, two large lighted windows on each side. We sat in silence waiting for the play to start. The audience started trickling in – soothing music. Almost every seat is taken. Expectation!
Four females in Quacker attire bring props onto the stage, then they join hands and sing, with soulful voices. It is a divine experience listening to them.
The scene changes, and the Shaker girls thrust themselves into the modern era—shouting passionately, wielding bold and unapologetic language while hoisting protest signs to unleash their unfiltered anger, “Pray for more dead soldiers,” “Fags Doom Nation,” “God is your enemy,” “God hates us.”
Rogue Machine’s Saint Megan was born through Joy Gregory’s participation in the Rogue Machine Playwright’s Roundtable. Gregory explores the Kansas-based Westboro Baptist Church and Rev. Fred Phelps who started the war against the LGBTQ community and raised questions about the First Amendment. The focal point is free speech…
Rev. Fred Phelps’ daughter Shirley Phelps (Rachel Sorsa) has three daughters. One of them is Megan (Caitlin Zambito) who inherits the hatred passed down by her mother and grandfather, spreading hyper-Calvinist extreme messages claiming that God hates. She joins live protests and spreads the word on social media. Her sisters Grace (Meg Cain) and Bekah (Cordelia Leigh) join forces with their mother and a sister to promote hate. Shannon Lee Clair (Amy/Teresa/Shaker woman) participates throughout in several roles.
When Megan meets Chad (Zack Rocklin-Waltch – who portrays more than one character Zack/Cop) and engages in an intense conversation with him on social media, she begins to change. He is Jewish and has his own hot stand on everything that Megan has been passionate about in her church. Their discussions about beliefs and Bible interpretation break down walls for both of them.
Director Lina Patel says, “I am drawn to plays that hold irreconcilable things simultaneously – comedy and horror, love and cruelty, conviction and doubt. I’ve been working with the multitalented Joy Gregory on Saint Megan for over a year, and a central question for me has been what do we lose when our beliefs harden, and what might we find if they soften. How do we understand a loving, educated, often hilarious and sweet family and the cruel and destructive value system they live by? Who are the Phelps? How did they come to believe what they do?”
The play is well written and skillfully directed, with an engaging cast that allows Rogue Machine another successful production – now selling out.
The Artistic Director Guillermo Cienfuegos remarks, ‘Joy Gregory’s Saint Megan holds a special place in my soul. For one thing, it was born and raised here at Rogue Machine – developed from a blank page as part of our Playwright’s Roundtable. I feel a great sense of gratitude when I think about the day the play was first read publicly, during our 2nd Roundtable Reading Festival in 2025. I knew then that we had to produce it – and I’m delighted this home-grown World Premiere culminates our 18th season.
It also continues and expands on our season theme of Perception; Saint Megan challenges us to test the limits of our own compassion – of our willingness to try and understand our fellow humans. Even if those humans say and do things we find reprehensible.’
The world premiere of Saint Megan runs at Rogue Machine’s Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, L.A., California, 90048. The show opened on October 10 and continues through November 22. Performances are on Fridays, Saturdays, and Mondays (except Nov. 31) at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m.
For reservations, call (213)282-8185 or go to www.roguemachinetheatre.org
*** I highly recommend this production of Saint Megan to anyone interested in social justice, LGBTQ issues, and religious/spiritual beliefs.