Cast Set for PRAYER FOR THE FRENCH REPUBLIC at The Huntington

The Huntington has revealed the cast and creative team of Prayer for the French Republic, the poignant, funny, and highly acclaimed new play written by Joshua Harmon and directed by Huntington Artistic Director Loretta Greco. The production kicks off Greco’s first full season of artistic programming in Boston, running from Thursday, September 7 – Sunday, October 8, 2023 at the Huntington Theatre (264 Huntington Avenue).
 
Prayer for the French Republic begins in 2016 Paris. The Salomon Benhamou family has worked hard to make Paris into a wonderful home after settling down in the 1870s. But when their son comes home beaten up because he was wearing a yarmulke, they are forced to question their safety and sense of belonging in the country they love. Full of intrepid humor, humanity, and hard decisions, the play jumps between 2016 and the 1940s, following the lives and heated kitchen-table discussions of five generations of family. Prayer is written in the sweeping style of the classics, plus sizzling dialogue and contemporary themes of belonging, evolving relationships with faith, and delicious croissants.
 
Prayer for the French Republic is the winner of three 2022 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play and the 2022 Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off Broadway Play. It was originally commissioned by the Manhattan Theatre Club and received its world premiere in January 2022, directed by David Cromer; MTC will transfer their production to Broadway this December 2023.

Artistic Director and director of this production, Greco says, “Joshua Harmon gives me hope for the future of the American theatre. He has an incredible gift for shedding light on the ways in which family, culture, and faith collide and evolve, and I’m thrilled to be introducing him to Huntington audiences this season. His extraordinary new play asks profound questions about what it takes to feel safe when hate persists across borders and generations, and in true Joshua Harmon fashion, manages to find the rich humor and pathos of being human in an imperfect world.”
 
Greco and Harmon have worked together previously when she was artistic director of San Francisco’s Magic Theatre, where she provided an occasional home away from home for Harmon. She produced a developmental workshop of Prayer for the French Republic as the centerpiece of Magic’s Virgin Play Festival in 2019 prior to its first production, in addition to producing Bad Jews, a public reading of Ivanka, and hosting a writing residency for Skintight.
 
“I met Loretta Greco almost ten years ago, when she produced Bad Jews at The Magic,” says Harmon. “I fell under her spell immediately and have stayed there ever since, so it thrills me to no end that she has chosen my play as the first she'll direct at The Huntington in the 23/24 season. I hope this play speaks to audiences from all backgrounds who have felt frightened these last few years about the future, the state of the world, and the state of our country, and yet who remain hopeful that we can all live in peace in the place we call home.”
 
New England audiences know Harmon’s previous plays Bad Jews, Admissions, and Significant Other from productions at SpeakEasy Stage and The Gamm Theatre.
 
The cast of Prayer for the French Republic includes:
 
2016 Family:
 
Amy Resnick as Marcelle Salomon Benhamou, the matriarch of the family. Credits include: The Death of Frank and I Think I Like Girls Off Broadway and Admissions at Capital Stage.
 
Barzin Akhavan as Charles Benhamou, Marcelle’s husband. Credits include: Witch at The Huntington, and Network and The Kite Runner on Broadway.
 
Carly Zien as Elodie Benhamou, Marcelle and Charles’ 28-year-old daughter. Credits include: Kaspar Hauser and Cato at The Flea.
 
Joshua Chessin-Yudin as Daniel Benhamou, Marcelle and Charles’ 26-year-old son. Credits include: The Sound Inside on Broadway, Prayer for the French Republic at Manhattan Theatre Club, and We Swim, We Talk, We Go to War at Golden Thread.
 
Tony Estrella as Patrick Benhamou, Marcelle’s brother. Credits include: Faith Healer and Hamlet at the Gamm Theatre (where he is artistic director), and Cymbeline at Commonwealth Shakespeare Company.
 
Talia Sulla as Molly, a cousin from America, visiting Paris. Credits include: Mother, May I at Boston Center for the Arts: BYA, and Much Ado About Nothing at Prague Shakespeare Company.
 
Will Lyman as Pierre Salomon, Marcelle and Patrick’s father. Credits include: Romeo and Juliet, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and All My Sons at The Huntington, and Man in Snow and The Passion of Dracula on Broadway.
 
1940s Family:
 
Phyllis Kay as Irma Salomon, Pierre’s grandmother. Credits include:  We All Fall Down at The Huntington and Tiny Beautiful Things at Trinity Rep.
 
Peter Van Wagner as Adolphe Salomon, Pierre’s grandfather. Credits include: Two Men of Florence at The Huntington and Grand Horizons on Broadway.
 
Jared Troilo as Lucien Salomon, Pierre’s father, son of Irma and Adolphe. Credits include: The Prom at SpeakEasy Stage and The Last Five Years at Lyric Stage Company.
 
Jesse Kodama as Young Pierre Salomon, 15 years-old, son of Lucien. Credits include: Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night at Two River Theater’s “A Little Shakespeare” project, and Elephant's Graveyard at Boston University.
 
Understudies include: Fady Demian, Josephine Elwood, David Kelly, Zach Kelley, Adrianne Krstansky, and Nael Nacer.
 

The creative team for Prayer for the French Republic includes scenic design by Andrew Boyce (A Doll’s House, Part 2 at The Huntington), costume design by Alex Jaeger (Rock ‘n’ Roll at The Huntington), lighting design by Christopher Akerlind (Indecent and Tartuffe at The Huntington), and sound design by Fan Zhang (Joy and Pandemic at The Huntington). The dramaturg is Charles Haugland. The assistant director is Dori A. Robinson and the voice coach is Lee Nishri-Howitt. The production stage manager is Kevin Schlagle and the stage manager is Pat-rice Rooney.
 
Prayer for the French Republic is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. concordtheatricals.com
 
 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS
 

Joshua Harmon (Playwright) Joshua Harmon’s plays include Bad Jews, Significant Other, Admissions, Skintight, and Prayer for the French Republic. He and Sarah Silverman co-wrote the libretto for The Bedwetter based on her memoir. His plays have been produced on Broadway and the West End; Off Broadway at Roundabout Theatre Company, Lincoln Center Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club, and Atlantic Theater Company; across the country at Geffen Playhouse, SpeakEasy Stage, Studio Theatre, Theater Wit, About Face, Actor’s Express, and The Magic Theatre, among others; and internationally in a dozen countries. He is a two-time MacDowell fellow and an Associate Artist at Roundabout. Graduate of Juilliard.
 
Loretta Greco (Director) is The Huntington’s Norma Jean Calderwood Artistic Director. Her extensive national directing credits include Taylor Mac’s world premiere of Joy and Pandemic for The Huntington, the premieres of runboyrun and A Park in Our House at New York Theatre Workshop, The Story, Lackawanna Blues, and Two Sisters and a Piano at The Public Theater, Sweat, The Realistic Joneses, Speed-the-Plow, and Blackbird at American Conservatory Theater, and productions for California Shakespeare, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, McCarter Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Long Wharf, La Jolla Playhouse, and Williamstown Theatre Festival, among others. She is a champion of groundbreaking artists and has longstanding working relationships with esteemed playwrights such as Taylor Mac, Mfoniso Udofia, Lloyd Suh, Barbara Hammond, Luis Alfaro, Octavio Solis, Linda McLean, and Sam Shepard, with whom she worked closely on a five-year Bay Area-wide legacy series and directed the critically acclaimed revivals of Buried Child and Fool for Love. Prior to The Huntington, she was the artistic director at San Francisco’s Magic Theatre for 12 years, as well as producing artistic director of New York’s WP Theater and associate director and staff producer of the McCarter Theatre. She is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect and the recipient of Bay Area Critic’s Association Awards, a Drama League fellowship, the Princess Grace Award, a Sundance/Luma Director’s fellowship, and the 2018 Zelda Fichandler Award.