facebookpixel Skip to content
843.723.4444 info@puretheatre.org
Pleasure Never Lies world premiere musical PURE Theatre

McNeal

by Ayad Akhtar
January 15–February 7, 2026
Southeast Regional Premiere
Directed by Sharon Graci

Pulitzer Prize winner Ayad Akhtar delivers a thrillingly vicious portrait of genius, ambition, and betrayal, as a literary icon faces down old grudges, new technology, and the price of his own myth.

Good writers borrow, great writers steal. Jacob McNeal is a great writer, one of our greatest, and a perpetual candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature. But he also has an estranged son, a new novel, old axes to grind, and an unhealthy fascination with Artificial Intelligence. From Pulitzer Prize-winner Ayad Akhtar, McNeal is a startling and wickedly smart examination of the inescapable humanity—and increasing inhumanity—of the stories we tell.

“A brilliant and transfixing new play” —The Atlantic

SEASON SPONSORS
The Rodney B. & Marjorie S. Fink Foundation
Connie & Richard Hayes
Lee Bell & Fotios Pantazis

INDIVIDUAL SPONSORS
Chalmers Foundation
Lee Bell & Fotios Pantazis

PAY WHAT YOU WILL SPONSOR
Judith & David Miller

Know Before You Go
Frequently Asked Questions

Follow us on Facebook or Instagram or join our mailing list!

TICKETS