Bughouse – 06 March 2026

More performance art than traditional theatrical production, Bughouse lets the audience into the mind of reclusive artist Henry Darger (John Kelly), who worked as a janitor after growing up in various institutions that labeled him as crazy or feeble minded. Himself a victim, Darger fixated his life’s work on child abuse, writing, in addition to a history of his own life, stories of young child rebels with pure hearts and strong attributes fighting for their rights with enthusiasm and zeal. During this time, he also prayed for a child that he could raise and take care of, or at least that the world’s children would be taken care of, repeatedly becoming angry with a God who did not answer his prayers.

In this production, Darger feels like a set piece with his world moving around him. The absolutely brilliant scenic (Faye Armon-Troncoso), projection (John Narun), lighting (Christopher Akerlind), and production (Neil Patel) design were absolutely astounding. My favorite element was that very little changed in terms of the physical makeup of the set, but elements that haunted Darger were hidden from view by deliberate lighting design choices until such time as Darger was ready to speak about them. One example is the corner of miscellaneous religious artifacts on stage right. Until the lights fully came up on this area, the audience was totally unaware that it wasn’t another display of books and papers. After the reveal, this area was lit whenever Darger prayed or thought about God.

Projections showed animated versions of some of Darger’s paintings. Truthfully, these unrealistic depictions of violence against children would not garner much attention in the art world without the valuable context of who Darger was and what he was writing about simultaneously. His depictions of young girls were based on five year old murder victim Elsie Paroubek, who he tried to immortalize in his art and in his fictitious writing about a rebel child brigade led by his fearless protagonist Annie Aronburg, who is unafraid of being murdered for standing up for the rights of ten year old girls like herself.

Bughouse is remarkable in that the house tells more of the story than the actor. The script, which Beth Henley adapted from Darger’s writings, is a little repetitive, and John Kelly’s acting shows someone who is not mentally feeble, but somewhat physically feeble, struggling to let all of these giant ideas about a broken world out of his head and into a space where they could be part of making a change. The design elements make the story as Darger’s ideas surround and overwhelm him with the importance of taking action and being part of the fight for children’s safety, rights, and protection. Wonderfully unconventional and startlingly communicated, Bughouse is bold, bright, and beautiful.

I attended this performance on a press pass from The Press Room.