‘Bug’- Alarmingly Topical or Sci-Fi?

By Alix Cohen

40ish Agnes White (Carrie Coon) lives in a low end motel room on an interstate highway in Oklahoma. A bar waitress, she seems to spend the rest of her time high. Today, ex-husband Jerry Gross (Steve Key) gets out of prison. Aggie fields a series of hang-up calls and despite a restraining order, anticipates his showing up. A central casting portrait of cocky, abusive white trash, he does so intermittently.

Hard-ass lesbian co-worker, R.C. (Jennifer Engstrom) arrives with drugs to invite her friend to a party. Stranger Peter Evans (Namir Smallwood) is in tow. The mild mannered, unusually articulate African American smokes, but doesn’t snort. Everyone has their line in the sand. When R.C. leaves, he stays.

Peter tenuously reaches out to Aggie. Two lonely, wounded people, they connect first with sex . Nudity is organic. (They lock up phones upon entry) Desperation is insidious. Trust seesaws. Her new companion almost leaves several times ostensibly to protect her. He tells Aggie the government is after him. Dread moves into the room like ominous shadows.

As a soldier stationed in Iraq, Peter says, the government experimented on him without permission. Said “research” took the form of bugs- literally biting insects- injected and nesting inside him, feeding on his blood. Four years hospitalization = incarceration in the US followed. He’s on the run.

Preventative steps are taken- some rational. The heroine is persuaded to paranoia which grows to hysteria in tandem with Peter’s. Every outsider is woven into hypothesized complicity. Has Dr. Sweet (Randall Arney) come to rescue or capture? Have Jerry and R.J. been conscripted by the government?

Whether you find Bug framed in conspiracy theory or sci-fi, Tracy Letts’s gruesome play of psychological realism has unquestionably acquired more resonance – theoretical plausibility- since it first played in 1996.

In the course of the piece, Peter refers to several of the following publicly documented programs:
1946-48- US Public Health Service deliberately infected soldiers, prisoners, and mental patients with syphilis to study disease progress and treatment. During and after WWII, the US Army exposed thousands of service members to mustard gas to test protective gear.

Between the 1950s and 1960s, the CIA experimented with psychoactive drugs and hypnosis on unwitting subjects including soldiers, civilians and intelligence personnel. A lesser known Army Intelligence program 1961-1963 tested LSD on subjects during interrogation simulations.

1972-1973 The Department of Defense ran Project 112 involving chemical and biological warfare tested on participants uninformed of risks. In all these cases, subjects were kept in the dark. Many experiments were conducted before modern ethics standards were fully implemented or enforced- a statement, not an excuse.

Not only did the playwright research actual, clandestine exploitation, but in a recent interview with The New York Times, he spoke of having read case studies of paranoid delusions and conspiracy theories.

December 2025, the venerable 60 Minutes presented an episode on a German start-up called SWARM Biotactics which is developing technology to fit Madagascar hissing cockroaches with tiny, sensor backpacks. So much for dismissing the use of insects. (Note to Mr. Letts- aphids don’t, as he suggests, bite.)

The piece is immensely compelling, though not without flaws. R.C. and Jerry are never believably integrated. A son Aggie lost years ago is additionally a MacGuffin. Still, you find yourself both shuddering and reflecting on the increasing secrecy of those who are meant to represent us.

Both Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwzood are vibrant and focused. Coon erupts with madness like Ophelia or Lucia di Lammermoor on steroids. Smallwood never lets Peter’s delusion (?) rob him of humanity. Chemistry (oddly, except physically) is palpable.

Director David Cromer keeps the lid on paranoia so tightly during act I, audience grows restless. Powerful events follow with increasing consequences- seat belts on, please- towards a cataclysmic ending.

Scenic Design by Takeshi Kata is especially evocative in terms of physical deterrence and props.
Josh Schmidt’s excellent Sound Design ranges from credible highway noise to helicopters.
Heather Gilbert’s Lighting contributes a feeling of time passing.
Dialect Coach Gigi Buffington serves well with her leading lady but is elsewhere hit or miss.
Intimacy Coordinator/Fight Director Marcus Watson delivers little truth in either category.

Photos by Mathew Murphy
Opening: Carrie Coon (Aggie) & Namir Smallwood (Peter)

Manhattan Theatre Club presents
Bug by Tracy Letts
In association with Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Directed by David Cromer
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre 261 West 47th ST.
https://www.manhattantheatreclub.com/