Heat Wave

Based on the book Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago (University of Chicago Press, 2002) by Eric Klinenberg, Associate Professor of Sociology at New York University, this moving new play looks at the heat wave of 1995 which took the lives of 739 Chicagoans. Chicago playwright and published author, Steve Simoncic recreates the hot air that swirled between medical examiners, health officials, reporters, mayoral staff, and sweaty Chicagoans. This co-production with Chicago’s Live Bait Theater examines one of the country’s worst weather-related disasters from all perspectives, creating a vivid portrait of a city in crisis, but with its resources and humanity firmly in tact.