Doed Koecks

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Scott Feiner

Cast members of "Doed Koecks."

Lauren Iverson, Travis Bedard and Paula Pachiarz in "Doed Koecks," Broom Street Theater, 2023.

From a mysterious diary found in the basement of a small town Wisconsin library, to the 17th century practice of “sin eating” (baking sins into cakes and eating them to take them off the slate of the deceased), this Broom Street Theater production by the playwright Coleman is intriguing. As depicted in Doed Koecks, the revival of sin eating ends up creating a global megachurch. All shows at 8 p.m., Thursday-Saturday.

media release: Broom Street Theater is proud to announce the world premiere of Doed Koecks, a new play by Coleman, directed by Cassie Hankins.

"Doed Koecks" is Dutch for "Dead cakes". It was once believed that a "Sin Eater" could bake the sins of a dying person into a cake, and smooth their entrance into heaven. When Bobby Otter stumbles upon a diary from the 1800s in the basement of the library in his small dying town in Wisconsin, it becomes the catalyst that ignites the fervor that becomes Doed Koecks church. Soon, that small town becomes the hub of a wealthy global megachurch... but what will it cost the Otter family?

This is the story of Doed Koecks, a thought-provoking new play soon to open at Broom Street Theater in Madison, Wisconsin. Cassie Hankins directs a cast featuring Sean Cairns as Bobby Otter and Meaghan Heires as his megalomaniac sister, Christine. The rest of the stellar cast is Kyla Vaughan, Ari Goldberg,Travis Bedard, Lauren Iverson, Stephanie Albrecht, and Paula Pachciarz.

The medieval music which gives the production so much of its dark, unsettling atmosphere is directed by  Colin Loeffler and choreographed by Kerida O'Reilly.

The singularly-named Coleman, who was until recently a Mineral Point resident, said "I first got interested in the medieval practice of sin-eating from watching an episode of The Twilight Zone, maybe thirty years ago. The episode got a lot of things wrong about the actual practice of sin eating, but then it was the Twilight Zone, after all. Over the years I would occasionally stumble upon a reference to the practice and each time it penetrated a little deeper into my creative psyche."

Director Cassie Hankins said, "This show is so remarkably plausible for a story about a fictional televangelist megachurch. In an age where people are increasingly skeptical - with good, valid reason - of the church and of these wealthy figureheads who claim to be pastors... it's absolutely time to pay attention to the man (or in our case, the woman) behind the curtain. The prosperity gospel is NOT the gospel. It's just not."

Don't miss your chance to experience Doed Koecks at the Broom Street Theater: