Michael Milligan plays the role of Joe in the one-man play he wrote called "Mercy Killers" that illustrates problems in the American health care system.

He visits Syracuse to perform the play from noon to 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 19. Admission is free. The performance takes place in room 9295 of Weiskotten Hall, 766 Irving Ave. on the campus of Upstate Medical University. It is sponsored by Upstate's Center for Bioethics and Humanities.

Reviews of the play call it "heart-breaking," "deeply affecting" and "raw, emotional and devastatingly honest." It is set in a police interrogation room.

Milligan, a native of Columbus, Ohio, has been writing and acting for the theater for almost two decades. He has performed on the Broadway stage and a variety of other theaters in New York.

Watch a clip from the play from the The Real News Network

Hear Milligan describe his performance from Arts Happening

Watch "Portrait of a Playwrite" from Art Voice West Virginia

Learn more about the show