Monday, Feb. 11 at 7 p.m.
The Allen Theatre's Second Stage in Cleveland's PlayhouseSquare
Free and open to the public. Tickets available at the door show night only

Broadway veteran and Ohio native Michael Milligan will present his new play, Mercy Killers, at venues throughout Ohio in February and March. The Mercy Killers Tour — a collaboration with the Single Payer Action Network — is organizing performances in Columbus, Athens, Dayton, Cleveland, Akron and Toledo to raise awareness about the continued dysfunction of the American health-care system. Milligan has toured Mercy Killers in New York and throughout Minnesota.

The play explores themes through Joe, an Ohio man being interrogated by the police over the death of his terminally ill wife. A red blooded American, Joe is sympathetic to the Tea Party, the libertarian convictions of self-reliance and the free market. When his cancer-stricken wife has her health insurance revoked and they become trapped in the labyrinth of the health-care system, Joe's faith in the American Dream is tested, and he is driven to make a fateful act.

Milligan has worked on several Broadway shows including "August: Osage County," "La Bete," and "Jerusalem." He most recently appeared in the world premiere of Christopher Hampton's "Appomattox" at the Guthrie Theater. While studying at Juilliard he won the John Houseman Prize for excellence in classical drama. He has performed Shakespeare around the country and as a part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Complete Works Festival in Stratford. His play, "Phaeton," will be included in the New Globe Theater in London's "Read not Dead" public reading series during the Globe's summer season. His other plays include The Sea Wolf, The Sublet, Heroine and Urgent: Aliens. A graduate of The Ohio State University, Milligan is thrilled to be returning to his home state to share this piece.