The Dangers of Tobacco

A lecture gone wrong becomes a wildly funny Chekhovian confession—with opera, live violin, and one spectacular unraveling.
About this Event

Returning After A Sold-Out Run!

Theater 86 is thrilled to welcome audiences into our new home—and to begin this exciting chapter with Anton Chekhov’s wickedly funny The Dangers of Tobacco. After a sold-out premiere in August, this beloved jewel of a show returns for three nights only in October!

A nervous lecturer steps before an audience to deliver a perfectly respectable talk. Under the watchful eye of his formidable wife, he promptly loses the subject, his composure, and very nearly his mind.

In Aleksey Burago’s bold two-actor interpretation, a lecture gone wrong becomes a hilarious and unexpectedly moving confession about marriage, misery, and the longing to be free.

Featuring acclaimed performers Tom Schubert and Elena Mindlina, with opera singing and live violin, this intimate theatrical pressure cooker is absurd, explosive, musical, and unmistakably human.

Come for the encore run. Stay for the nervous breakdown.