PIG IRON'S 2026 SEASON
In honor of our 30th Anniversary, Pig Iron is presenting our largest season in over 10 years! From January to June, Pig Iron will remount our 3 most recent, highly acclaimed shows: Poor Judge, Bartok’s Monster, and Franklin’s Key.
Poor Judge: Directed by Eva Steinmetz, starring Dito Van Reigersberg, and featuring the Music of Aimee Mann
January 13-25, 2026 at the Wilma Theatre
Pig Iron Theatre Company’s Barrymore Award-winning Poor Judge returns to the Wilma! An original work of dance-theater cabaret born from the music of alt-rock iconoclast Aimee Mann and dreamed up by Philadelphia’s beloved Dito van Reigersberg, this live-music mixtape is part spy story, part woeful tale of lost loves, and part Hollywood audition—all performed by a local supergroup of actor-musicians.
Through vignette and song, Poor Judge offers glimpses of an inviting, seductive Los Angeles and its shadowy underbelly. Be prepared for a night of lonely California highways, movie theater breakups, and sly acoustic re-imaginings of Aimee Mann’s haunting catalog.
Bartok’s Monster: Directed by Dan Rothenberg, featuring the Daedalus Quartet
March 20-21, 2026 at Swarthmore College
A collaboration with the “insightful and vibrant” (The New York Times) Daedalus Quartet and award-winning object-theater creator Sebastienne Mundheim. Pig Iron co-founder Dan Rothenberg directs an unconventional lecture-demonstration about the folk-origins found in the music of Béla Bartók – illuminated by Mundheim’s paper sculptures and a team of movement artists. A music history lesson devolves into something much darker as the search for the wellspring of Bartok’s inspiration leads to a kind of madness.
University of Pennsylvania’s exceptional quartet-in-residence plays a programme of Bartók, his contemporaries, and his influences, drawing inspiration from acclaimed memoirist Jay Kirk’s Avoid the Day: A New Nonfiction in 2 Movements.
Franklin’s Key: Directed by Dan Rothenberg and Eva Steinmetz and written by Robert Quillen Camp & Dan Rothenberg
June 11-28, 2026 at Plays & Players Theatre
During the War of Independence, the British feared that Benjamin Franklin could control the weather. But what if that were true? In an alternate universe where Franklin’s most powerful inventions have been hidden for centuries, two high school prodigies must race against time to protect Franklin’s undiscovered technology from shadowy forces.
Set amid iconic Philadelphia landmarks, Franklin’s Key blends our city’s rich history with larger-than-life characters, sharply choreographed movement, and breathtaking stage illusions to create a pulse-pounding, brainy delight for adventurous theatergoers of all ages.