About The Conspirators

The Conspirators are a (newfangled) theater & performance collective in Chicago dedicated to provoking thought and action through dynamic, immediate theater art.

A Note on Style…

The Conspirators work exclusively in a neo-commedia style called The Style. Initially developed by Los Angeles stalwarts The Actors’ Gang and Chicago’s own New Crime Productions, The Style combines the basics of classic Commedia dell’Arte with intense emotional states and influences like Kabuki, Kathakali, Bugs Bunny and a high-energy punk-rock esthetic that a critic once called “a coke-fueled clown nightmare.” Elements of The Style include grotesque makeup and costume, stylized movement punctuated by percussion, audience address and malevolent satire. In Chicago, The Style has been seen in Mary-Arrchie’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Babes With Blades’ L’Imbécile and New Crime’s The Balcony, Alagazam…After the Dog Wars and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The Conspirators have proudly built upon the work of our progenitors to create The Resistible Rise of Herr Helmut Drumpf in 2016 and The Deckchairs, or Make the Titanic Great Again and Yankee Doodles: Let Treason Ring! in 2018. The Style is also an amazing spectacle in its Free Style improvisational mode, employing a live “style coach” barking calls to the performers as they create real-time on-stage insanity, seeming pulling transcendent lazzi out of thin air.

The Conspirators are comprised as follows: