Kansas City Actor's Theater Presents BOSTON MARRIAGE

By: Jan. 14, 2010
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Boston Marriage is a wickedly wild ride through a drawing room with infamous American playwright David Mamet's trademark tart dialogue and impeccable plotting, generously spiced with Wildean wit. Here Mamet also enters new territories-setting the play in the Victorian era and featuring an all-female cast.

Artistic Company member Melinda McCrary makes her KCAT directorial debut, and The Acting Company features Cinnamon Schultz, Cheryl Weaver and Rachel May Roberts. Both Ms. Weaver and Ms. Roberts are making their Actors Theatre debuts.

Merriam-Webster defines a boston marriage as a "long-term loving relationship between two women." The play transports us to Victorian New England and directly into Anna's drawing room as she awaits the return of Claire. The news they each have for the other launches us into an explosive and deliciously verbal journey as their love changes-perhaps forever. Both hilarious and heartbreaking, the conflicts, negotiations, passions and vulnerabilities of our sharp-tongued heroines reflect the institution of "marriage" in all times and genders. Toss in a troublesome Scottish maid and the bumpy ride is bumpier. For those who have ever wanted to be a fly on the wall of someone else's relationship, the intimate seating for this production at the gorgeous Webster House is just what you've been looking for. These three lively ladies will be almost right in your lap.

As Ben Brantley wrote in the New York Times, "It's girls' night out in Mametville, a time to give the other sex a chance to strut and fret its hour upon the stage...don't expect a gaggle of tough broads with machine-gun mouths...These ladies are refined; they hang out in drawing rooms. And believe it or not, they talk as pretty as anyone out of Oscar Wilde."

David Mamet is the author of some of the best-known and most important plays in American theatre including Glengarry GLen Ross, American Buffalo, Oleanna and Speed-the-Plow. Throughout his work he has proven himself a master at scripting stories filled with deception, crime and plot-twists. Tying it all together is dialogue written with an acute ear for language and its use in scrabbling for power.

The production and design team for Boston Marriage includes Production Stage Manager J.F. Mitchell and Costume Designer Jon Fulton Adams.



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