Alex Winter, who has starred on the stage and screen over the last four decades, has joined the producing team for the New York premiere of Slaughter City by the award-winning playwright Naomi Wallace.
On joining the team, Winter says, “I’m very excited to be collaborating with Ben Natan and the theater company at Small Boat, who are creating vibrant and urgent work. Wallace’s masterful play, Slaughter City, is a visceral drama that speaks perfectly to this moment.”
Mixing reality and dream, the radical and the mystic, Slaughter City is a searing drama about life in the meat-packing industry. It was first produced in 1996 by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London. The long overdue New York premiere is produced by Small Boat Productions and is directed by Reuven Glezer. It is scheduled to run October 4-18, 2025, at A.R.T./New York Theatre’s Jeffrey and Paula Gural Theatre, located at 502 W 53rd St in Manhattan. The production is set to open on Monday, October 6.
Winter returns to the New York stage this fall, leading a Jamie Lloyd-directed Broadway revival of Waiting for Godot alongside longtime friend and collaborator, Keanu Reeves. Now he is bringing his theatrical experience to the independent theater scene as well, joining Small Boat Productions in making Naomi Wallace‘s 1993 psychological thriller play possible.
Ben Natan, artistic director of Small Boat Productions, couldn’t be more excited to have Winter onboard. “I’ve been a longtime fan of Alex, as the Bill and Ted movies were a big part of my childhood. In the last few years, I have become more familiar with Alex’s documentarian and activist work, which has deepened my respect for him as a person. Small Boat sees its role in theater as not just to provide entertainment, but to perform critical cultural work that inspires and educates our audiences. As I’ve gotten to know Alex more, I see that his values align with that of my company and this incredible production. I’m thrilled and humbled that Alex will be lending his help to Slaughter City while working on what will be a historic revival of Waiting for Godot.”
On Slaughter City making its way to a New York stage, playwright Naomi Wallace commented, “Slaughter City was first produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 1996, and after all these years, it will finally have its premiere in New York City. I’m thrilled that Small Boat will bring this play to life again. While Slaughter City touches on dangerous work and turbulence on the shop floor, it is also a hallucinogenic and darkly comic look at a history of resistance that has long been distorted.”
Director Reuven Glezer, who makes their Off-Broadway debut with this production, said, “In the words of the late Athol Fugard, Slaughter City embodies a theatre that uses the human voice, real flesh, real time. We’re diving headfirst into a world across the ages, across bodies, and I can’t wait for audiences to come with us to the deep end.”
Small Boat Productions launched in 2024 with a celebrated revival of Clifford Odets‘ Waiting for Lefty at the Flea. On following up that production with Slaughter City, Small Boat Productions’ Artistic Director Ben Natan declared, “Now is not the time to be safe in our art making. Safe in process, yes. Safe in how the artists feel, absolutely. But the type of art that is being made, the stories we are telling, and the people we are telling them alongside… there needs to be risk. Slaughter City shows us that getting there is messy business. Blood and guts, to say the least. Small Boat is not afraid of messy business, or taking risks, or spilling our guts a bit. This was a company founded on creating that better world in theater and making the fight for it irresistible to artists and audiences alike. I am so thrilled about this play, the team of badass theater workers who will bring it to the stage, and how audiences will join us in our little theatrical rebellion.”
The ensemble cast for Slaughter City includes Lucy Buchanan, Gil Charleston, Le’Asha Julius, Gabrielle Kogut*, Owen Laheen*(Translations, Henry IV), Ben Natan* (Richard III), Nicolas Eric Sanchez*, and Alan Simon*, along with Mario C. Brown, Jacob Dysart, Catt Filippov, Raven Jeannette, and Kristin KP Sgarro who serve as understudies.
The creative team includes Forest Entsminger (scenic design), Hannah Bird (costume design), Celia Krefter (lighting design), Emma Hasselbach (sound design), Emily Johnson-Erday (composer & musician), Jonathan Schatzberg (props designer), Alexandra Haddad (intimacy & fight director), Maya Jeyam (assistant director), Miranda Tejeda (stage manager), Tessa Ramirez-Keough (assistant stage manager), Honigman & Sons (line producer), and AJ Liu (associate producer).