Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind

Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind is the longest running play in Chicago. Starting in 1988, the play has run 50 weekends of the year since then. Subtitled "30 Plays in 60 Minutes," the play consists of exactly that – 30 short plays performed in a 60 minute space, written, directed, and performed by a small troupe of actors. The play was created by Greg Allen, although in its current manifestation it contains no plays written by him.

The play is the work of the Neo-Futurist movement, and reflects their aesthetic of writing plays in which the actors play themselves and the setting is a stage. The plays actively invite audience participation, and move rapidly from the humorous to the upsetting to the simply strange. Every week between two and twelve plays are removed from the playlist and replaced with new plays, written in the course of the week. The order of the plays varies from night to night, and is determined by the audience screaming out numbers from the "menu" of plays.

The price of admission is determined by adding some fixed number (Currently $7) and the number rolled on a six-sided die by the person attempting to get in. Upon payment, a member of the cast, wearing headphones shouts "What's your name?" at you. They then hand you a nametag with the wrong name – usually something completely strange like "Dance Hot" or "Beat box."

To date, three volumes of plays from the show have been published.

A second Neo-Futurist troupe has begun a production of the play in New York City. This production has its own actors, and thus does not contain the same 30 plays as the Chicago version at any given moment.