Red Barn Studio Theatre

Imaginary Theater Company presents

Boston Marriage
by David Mamet

Directed by Mike O’Neil, this period comedy features Rachel Lewis Hilburn, Anna Stromberg and Barbara Weetman and runs February 16 – March 18. Showtimes Thursdays – Saturdays at 8:00 PM & Sundays at 3:00 pm.

About the play:

David Mamet channels Oscar Wilde in this drawing room comedy of desire, deception, and very bad manners.

Boston Marriage is clever, powerful, and rapier sharp.  It’s vintage Mamet, and it represents Mamet’s definitive rebuttal to the accusation that he can’t write for women.

The term “Boston Marriage,” derived from Henry James’ The Bostonians, dates back to the 19^th century and was used to describe households in which two women – often upper class, intellectual or artistic — lived together, independent of the support of a man.  Whether or not these were sexual relationships remains a subject of conjecture; some were and some were not.

Sexual identity is very much at the heart of Mamet’s story, as Anna, who has taken a male lover in order to provide for her livelihood and that of her friend Claire, is shocked to find that Claire has fallen in love with a much younger woman.  As if that isn’t enough, Claire then asks for Anna’s help in wooing the sweet young thing.  Mamet also tackles class warfare, as an innocent yet ultimately knowing Scottish maid patiently endures Anna’s anti-Irish sentiment.

Boston marriage has been called “a very witty, incisive satire of decorous vulgarity, barely repressed desire, and class hostility.”  It is a “comedy of manners and yearnings, [in which] Wilde and Mamet, the old and the new, contend boisterously.”

Tickets now available from WilmingtonTickets.com.
The Red Barn Studio Box Office opens on January 31^st.  Box Office hours are 4:00-6:00 pm Tuesday through Friday.  Call early for reservations.