Premiering this summer at Ars Nova’s ANT Fest in NYC and Underbelly Cowgate in the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, THE MONKEYPOX GOSPEL is Ngofeen Mputubwele's audio-driven epidemic memoir adapted from the forthcoming podcast of the same name. 

Summer 2022. Ngofeen gets his first big assignment at The New Yorker. It’s about the global mpox outbreak (known at the time as “monkeypox”), and he’s the ideal reporter: his family comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (the virus’s origin), and infections are spreading through sexual contact within New York’s queer community, including his own social circle. With two million people preparing to attend NYC Pride in a few weeks, getting the word out is critical.

But writing publicly about queerness terrifies Ngofeen. He only recently broke a lifelong vow of celibacy and began going on dates. Now, by writing the article, Ngofeen is risking a confrontation with his religious community while fearing the gay man he’s becoming.

Combining behind-the-scenes reporting, real audio interviews, flights of fantasy, nerdy tangents, and cameos from John Oliver, Anthony Fauci and more, THE MONKEYPOX GOSPEL testifies to the truth about viruses – they reveal the crises we ignore, the ones waiting to be faced.

written by Ngofeen Mputubwele

directed by Alex Hare

produced by Dom Stephens

Cast: Ngofeen Mputubwele, with Zachary Desmond (ANT Fest) and Alex Hare (Edinburgh Fringe)

Set Design: Forest Entsminger

Artwork: Daniel El Dibujo

Graphic Design: Brandon Rains

Publicist: Storytelling PR

I’m a journalist. And this show is my first public attempt at reconciling with my queerness, the fact that it's mainly haunted or terrified me, while the people around me urge me to embrace it. But what will it cost me?

While grappling with these fears, I bring the audience into the difficulty we all have reckoning with the darkness inside our relationships with the people we love, and the people in the world who we cut off from care. Viruses have an uncanny way of bringing all these things to the surface, and this show uses that fact to ask the audience what things they might be afraid to face. 

Also we’re having fun! I get to use all of my favorite creative tools: there’s real audio interviews, nerdy opera analysis, tangents into theology and etymology, music from the different corners of my life (Congolese, liturgical, gay dance pop), and much more. 

While we have ambitions to continue touring the show beyond 2025, we believe our performances this summer (one at Ars Nova in NYC and twenty-four in Edinburgh) can have an impact in themselves. They offer a chance to tell the full story – everything that didn’t fit in the New Yorker article, all the messy complexity and wide-ranging experiences – and to share it with friends and strangers. Ultimately, we want to present a show that counteracts the destructive forces of our current world, one that inspires people to move toward, not away from each other.

Our fundraising goal is $23,000. We’re trying to balance being scrappy with being responsible, which means doing the things that will allow the show to be successful amidst the 3000+ events that take place during the Fringe – i.e. working with a top venue and PR team, paying for outdoor marketing, flyering, and more. We're also collaborating with a team of designers and production staff who are essential in helping us devise an innovative audio/theatrical experience. And the housing and travel that we’ve (thankfully!) secured is expensive. 

We’re undertaking a major fundraising campaign while still furiously rewriting and developing the script. It’s stressful and exciting. Your donation will bring us much closer to our goal and allow us to focus on the artistic work of caring for this intimate, personal piece.

BIOS

Ngofeen Mputubwele is a journalist and lawyer who creates fantasy-laden audio documentaries about real life. His podcast work has been nominated for a James Beard Award and featured on The New York Times’ Top 10 Podcasts and the Atlantic’s Best 50 Podcasts. He hosted Duolingo’s French Podcast for thirteen seasons and now produces and hosts a podcast for Human Rights Watch. He has also produced podcasts for voices as varied as Jad Abumrad (RadioLab), RuPaul and David Byrne, as well as writers like David Remnick and Hilton Als. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker and WIRED.

Alex Hare is a director/writer of theater and film. Recent projects include We Take Pictures (short film), Topdog/Underdog (StageCenter LA), The Judgment of Quintus (upcoming video game), and the internet film Capricorn 29 (The Tank). He’s currently developing several new musicals, including A Burning Church with Zhailon Levingston and Nehemiah Luckett. For four years, he was the associate artistic director of Corkscrew Theater Festival. Assistant credits include Broadway productions of School of Rock and Side Show. Awards: SDC Foundation’s Charles Abbott Fellowship for musical theatre directors. He has frequently assisted director Bill Condon on film/stage projects. 

Dom Stephens is the producer of The Monkeypox Gospel. Based in London, he is the Old Vic Theatre trained, Brighton Fringe Award nominated director behind such critically acclaimed comedy shows as Alex Franklin: Gurl Code (Brighton Fringe Best Comedy Award Nominee, transferring to the Soho Theatre) and Vlad Ilich: Vladislav Baby Don’t Hurt Me (The Scotsman: “consistently funny and ambitious debut”). He is also an award-winning podcaster with his show Spieling The Beans, in which he interviews some of the world’s best storytellers including George Clooney, Noam Chomsky, Tig Notaro, and Brian Cox (the actor, not the scientist). The show was named a ‘40 Under 40’ by Podcast Magazine.