The Niceties at Writers Theatre

What happens when theoretical arguments suddenly turn personal in the ivory tower of an elite East Coast university? Dont miss the thrilling, provocative new play that The Washington Post calls one of the best plays about who gets to tell the story of America, and how. In The Niceties by Eleanor Burgess, an accomplished Ivy League professor holds routine office hours with an ambitious young student to discuss her thesis: if history is written by the victors, who tells the story of the oppressed? Before long, quibbles over vocabulary and Wikipedia citations turn into a dangerous debate as both women passionately defend their perspective and their personal worldviewuntil one of them puts everything on the line to make her case.This taut, intelligent new play will make you question your own assumptions and reevaluate whether generation gaps can be bridged while gaps in knowledgeand in experienceremain. Director Marti Lyons (Witch) returns to WT to stage this intellectual thriller of a play that examines equality, revolution and what happens when people set aside the niceties and reveal whats really on their minds.

Authors

• Eleanor Burgess