Boston Marriage

Boston Marriage
by David Mamet

Directed by Melinda McCrary

With every successive season we have employed the finest of Kansas City’s theatre artists and artisans, and have unfailingly delivered smart, unique and moving productions. Productions which focus squarely on the playwright, the actor, and powerful storytelling.

It is in that tradition that we staged our most recent production: David Mamet’s Boston Marriage.

boston marriage: (noun), a long-term loving relationship between two women. - Merriam-Webster

This wickedly funny comedy with Mamet’s trademark tart dialogue and impeccable plotting, centers on two women and the desires, conflict, and compromise that arise in their relationship. Set in the Victorian era, Boston Marriage and its Wildean wit is one of Mamet’s only works to focus on the female perspective–the perfect complement to last summer’s all-male cast of Glengarry Glen Ross. This production featured Cheryl Weaver, Cinnamon Schultz and Rachel May Roberts.

David Mamet is the author of some of the best-known and most important plays in American theatre, such as 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. And tying it all together is dialogue written with an acute ear for language and its use in scrabbling for power. As Ben Brantley wrote in the New York Times, “Mr. Mamet hears American scheming with an exactitude and delight still unsurpassed by any other dramatist.”

Previews: January 20-21, 2010
Opened January 22, 2010
Closed February 11, 2010

Reviews and Press

‘Audacity and reckless courage are always admirable qualities in theater artists, and both are in ample supply in the Actors Theatre KC production of David Mamet’s “Boston Marriage.”’

‘Director Melinda McCrary and three skilled actresses bring Mamet’s arch satire to life in a setting so intimate that the players are essentially performing without a safety net.’

“Schultz and Weaver are quite good together and make the most of Mamet’s formidably cerebral dialogue and dry wit. There are moments when the raw language we most often associate with Mamet pops up, but the actresses handle all the play’s words with finesse.”

“Rachel Roberts turns in a remarkable comic turn as Catherine, Anna’s maid, a Scottish immigrant who is subjected to unrelenting verbal sadism from Anna and Claire. Roberts employs a credible accent and demonstrates knife-edge timing.”

Robert Trussell / KC Star

‘A unique and engaging Kansas City Actors Theatre production of “Boston Marriage” ‘

“…the actresses capably tackle this difficult language and deliver credible characterizations. While all three are splendid, Roberts makes the biggest impression as the wide-eyed Scottish maid who may not be quite as naive as she initially appears.”

Russ Simmons / The Sun

 “Weaver and Schultz fire through these lines, always making clear that their characters enjoy coming up with such pearls. Sometimes, Weaver’s Anna struggles to find the next perfect word, and Weaver makes sad comedy of this. As the complications pile up and Claire’s confidence frays, Schultz and director Melinda McCrary let her crack just a little — a touch of the human underneath all this linguistic extravagance.”

Alan Scherstuhl / The Pitch 

Images

Intro Video