America Side Effects is an allegorical comedy by Trey Knowles that uses sharp, unsettling humor to reveal the costs of America’s entrenched harms. Through vivid, often shocking scenes — from gun violence touching children to citizens trapped by debt and false freedoms — the play shows how liberty can become a license for wrongdoing. Knowles suggests that a nation that refuses to walk away from its evils risks destruction, and he challenges viewers to critically judge both America and their own complicity rather than accept comforting myths about freedom and virtue.
