“The Poisoner,” a play written by M.M. Haney and directed by Lee Sunday Evans, will conclude its seven-city national tour in Detroit this October. Performances are scheduled for October 30th and 31st at Marygrove Theatre, located at 8425 West McNichols Road. These final stops will include post-performance conversations connecting the play's themes to water, press, and water justice work across Michigan, including Flint and Detroit.
The tour, which began September 17, will run through October 31, 2026, making Detroit its final destination after stops in cities such as Bethlehem, PA; Pittsburgh, PA; Kenosha, WI; Madison, WI; De Pere, WI; and Kalamazoo, MI. In each city, the production has aimed to engage directly with local communities, connecting with organizers, advocates, and residents involved in environmental and resource control efforts.
Inspired by the 2014 Flint water crisis, “The Poisoner” is a neo-noir thriller centered on a determined journalist who returns to his hometown to uncover a devastating cover-up of water contamination. The narrative explores institutional failure, deception, and the struggle for accountability, posing the question: “are we ever safe?” Playwright M.M. Haney is a Michigan native and first-time playwright, while director Lee Sunday Evans is a two-time Obie Award winner.
Discussions following Thursday and Friday performances in Detroit will feature prominent figures in Michigan’s clean water advocacy. Participants are slated to include Melissa Mays and Nayyirah Shariff from Flint Rising, and Sylvia Orduño with the People’s Water Board Coalition, both groups described as central to the state's fight for clean, affordable, and publicly controlled water. Additionally, journalists from Michigan Radio, News Director Vince Duffy and Lindsay Smith (creator of the “Not Safe to Drink” series), will join the talkbacks to provide insight into the journalistic perspective of the play and real-life water crises.
For Flint residents interested in attending, two buses will be provided for free transportation to the Friday, October 30th performance. The play, presented by Citizen56 and Uncommon Productions, originally premiered at New York’s La Mama Experimental Theatre Club in 2024, marking the 10-year anniversary of the Flint water crisis.
Director Lee Sunday Evans highlighted the broader relevance of the play, stating there are “parallels across the Midwest with communities wrestling with their own questions about data centers, water, accountability, and who has the power to be part of democratic decision-making processes.” Evans added that these questions are “not Flint’s questions alone, but ours collectively.”
“The Poisoner” aims to amplify awareness about persistent challenges faced by various communities, including Flint, Jackson, Newark, and Pittsburgh, which grapple with aging infrastructure, water contamination, and demands for corporate and government accountability. The production is characterized as a universal tale, unraveling deception, abuse of power, and negligence in early 2000s Midwestern water politics. It seeks to immerse audiences, making them feel like the reporter or a family member directly affected by the issues, according to production statements. In Michigan, the critical issues raised about lead, control of water resources, and public trust remain actively contested across the state.
