A dark comedy with puppets and blood! A janitor discovers a ball of rats with their tails stuck together, and attempts to help them resolve their issues. One by one they attempt to leave, forcing the janitor to cut them loose as they face the guilt of ending past relationships.

I started planning a rat king play about a year ago. I'm fascinated by the grisly and horrifying phenomenon, above all it simply feels unfair. Like a real life cosmic horror. Things that awful don't feel like they should be able to happen, I think that encourages the mythology and sideshow feel of it all. I wanted to use this premise to explore my past experiences in relationships, feeling trapped, prolonging the inevitable only making things worse, and knowing that ending things will cause short-term pain but long-term lifesaving freedom. The voice and arc of the writing is inspired by In the Green (Grace McLean) and Three Houses (Dave Malloy). I was inspired by how the Mouth, Eye, and Hand in In the Green almost always have dialogue from their unique perspective as that body part, each of their lines is themed and based around that central perspective. I wrote the rat's lines with a similar structure in mind, basing everything they said around their core "need".

Around the end of my year deliberating and trying many different iterations that kept falling flat, I was invited to perform at Puppet Night at Wildland Roots on September 6th, 2025. This invitation came in August, and it wasn't until August 16th that I had the script in hand and was able to properly commit to this show. That left me with three weeks, 28 days, to make the puppets, props, and arrange rehearsals with my five actors before the premiere.

9/6/2025 - Puppet Night at Wildland Roots

Info:

• 7:00pm September 6th, 2025
• Green Anchors 8940 N Bradford St, Portland, OR 97203

Program:

• Janitor: Bryn Bollimpalli
• Rat 1: Notion
• Rat 2: Margo Stewart
• Rat 3: Weevil
• Rat 4: Anne Reinders
• Rat 5: Presley Ellison
• Written and directed by Notion
• Puppets by Notion with help from Presley Ellison

9/5/2025 - Final dress rehearsal