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BOSTON MARRIAGE

a comedy

by David Mamet

April 24 - May 18

Rave Reviews Are In!

MAMET FESTIVAL
May 22 - 25

Thurs. - Sat.  8:00 pm
(Gala "Deep Dish" reception
on Thurs, May 22 at 7 pm)

Sun.  2 pm


Elizabeth Huffman and Jacqueline Reid star in Boston Marriage, now playing at FUSION Theatre Company
photo © 2008 Richard K. Hogle

So much depends upon an auger


FUSION Theatre Company, Albuquerque’s own professional theatre company, continues its 2007/8 season with a special Mamet Month, anchored by the regional premiere of the great American playwright's unusual and witty Boston Marriage. Opening night at The Cell Theatre, Thursday April 24, features an opening reception at 7 pm with an 8 pm curtain. Reservations are recommended.

While no stranger to Albuquerque boards, the Mamet works FUSION is producing are sterling, unusual efforts from the writer of American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross, and Oleanna and films like The Postman Always Rings Twice and House of Games. Headlining our month-long festival is Boston Marriage, written in 1999. Taking its title from a 19th century euphemism for two women living together intimately, Boston Marriage centers on two women, Anna and Claire, struggling to negotiate the intricate twists and turns of their complex relationships with one another as well as others in their household. Featuring brilliant Victorian-era dialog, sprinkled with delightful vernacular zest, Mamet has created a funny, witty and acerbic portrait that provides a brilliant vehicle for its principal actors.

FUSION's all-Actors Equity production is directed by Albuquerque fave Robb Sisneros (who most recently directed Tennessee Williams' Mister Paradise at FUSION) and stars newcomer Elizabeth Huffman and FUSION standouts Jacqueline Reid (Madagascar) and Jen Grigg (The Lieutenant of Inishmore).

Make Reservations Now
for our special one-weekend Mamet Festival

FUSION Theatre Company continues its 2008 Mamet Festival as the company leads you into the brain of this great American playwright. Delving into rarely produced short pieces from The Old Neighborhood and The Blue Hour, FUSION takes you on a jazzy, entertaining Mamet-of-a-ride. Opening night at The Cell Theatre, Thursday May 22, features a “deep dish” reception at 7 pm with an 8 pm curtain.

As an added bonus, we will feature free screenings of two wonderful Mamet films. After the Thursday performance of "Being David Mamet" (10 PM screen time), we will show Wag the Dog on our beautiful, big screen. Prior to the Sunday matinee (11 AM), we will show Glengarry Glen Ross. Free! Come join the fun!

David Mamet, writer of such greats as Oleanna and Glengarry Glen Ross, brings an intimate, urban consciousness to his short works highlighting dynamics of family, relationships, and the inevitable need for connection within the human journey – all with a great sense of perspective and humor. Performers include Maria Ashna, Evan Garrett, David Lang, Desiree Lang, Justin Lenderking, Diane McGee and Laurie Thomas.

The Mamet Festival runs one weekend only, with Thursday through Saturday, May 22-24 performances at 8 pm and a Sunday matinee on May 25 at 2 pm. Thursday's performance is preceeded by a special "Deep Dish" Chicago-style reception at 7 pm for only $5 more!

Boston Marriage continues through May 18 with Thursday through Saturday performances at 8 pm and Sunday matinees at 2 pm. The Mamet Festival runs May 22 through May 25 at the same times. For tickets and information, use our convenient on-line ticket marketplace or call 766-9412. Tickets are $25 for general admission, $20 for students and seniors. Thursday performances (excluding opening night) feature a $10 student rush (with valid I.D.) and $18 actor rush (with professional resume.) Group discounts are also available. Free parking is plentiful. FUSION performs at The Cell, which is located at 700 1st St. N.W. (just west of Broadway and south of Lomas.) Click on "Location" menu item above for a map.



Barry Gaines, review, April 26, 2008, The Albuquerque Journal:
"David Mamet is one of America’s most influential playwrights (as well as an actor, screenwriter, director, essayist, and biblical exegete). His early plays are famous for street-smart, macho characters spouting a clipped, crafted, and profoundly profane patois that has been labeled “mametspeak.” However, one charge against Mamet has been that his female characters fizzle and fail. Mamet’s Boston Marriage, being presented in a scintillating production by the FUSION Theatre Company at the Cell Theatre, is a three-woman play that demonstrates Mamet’s ability to write against expectation. The play is set in a Victorian drawing room and features elegantly refined dialogue where obscenities occasionally explode like farts in church (the line is Mamet’s).

The term “boston marriage” describes two women who live together independently and share emotional, if not always sexual, intimacy. The term appeared after Henry James featured such a couple in his novel “The Bostonians.” In Mamet’s play, Anna and Claire have shared a long-term sexual relationship. Claire returns to Anna’s parlor after a prolonged absence to find her wearing an outsized ruby, a family heirloom given to her by her new lover/patron. (Anna explains, “I wear it, should I be summoned on the instant, to choke a horse.”) Claire wishes to bring a new young love interest to Anna’s home for seduction. The two ladies explore their relationships in dazzling monologues and Wilde-ly witty repartee. The plot takes unexpected turns that I won’t reveal.

The third woman is the maid, Catherine, who is alternately ignored and berated by “her betters.” All three ladies are in a similar situation of seeking self-sufficiency in a man’s world.

It is a joy to watch Elizabeth Huffman as Anna and Jacqueline Reid as Claire together. Under the direction of Rob Sisneros, they cajole, commiserate, whine, and insult, but whether reclining on the fainting couch, sitting on the tête-à-tête loveseat, or serving tea, they are in constant emotional contact. Though the rapidity of their patter makes some lines difficult to catch, the acting—and reacting—are riveting and the timing precise. Huffman and Reid wisely recognize that since the script is funny, they don’t need to “act” funny. Jen Grigg, pneumatically inflated by costume designer Cassidy Zachary, does well in the role of the Maid. Together the three actresses sustain a continuously comic creation—through two intermissions."


Matt Gees, review, Australian Broadcasting Corporation:
"Boston Marriage is a fast-paced play with great humour, subtle sarcasm and a storyline that will leave your head spinning and a smile plastered across your face."


Richard Brucher, review, University of Maine, Orono:
"Boston Marriage is a brilliantly clever, serious play."


Kevin Johnson, review, talkinbroadway.com:
"The play is fused with sexual innuendo; estrogen and ego create a deadly combination."




Elizabeth Huffman

ELIZABETH HUFFMAN* is the founder and Artistic Director of ICAP Theatre Company in Los Angeles. With ICAP she directed and adapted Bon Ton Roulet at the Shakespeare Café that was performed at the Theatertage Festival in Hanau Germany this past October, as well as The Rope, Night Breath, (selected to represent the USA at the Playoff ’06 Festival in Germany) Troilus and Cressida, and Landscape of Dreams in Seven Movements. Other directing projects include: The Trojan Women/Iphigenia in Aulis, The Two Noble Kinsmen, As You Like It, The Gift Horse with Alfred Molina and Harold Gould, Playing with the Gods, Merry Wives of Windsor, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Liars, and The Tempest at the Mark Taper Amphitheatre. As an actress she recently performed the role of “Natalie” in The Siege of Leningrad and garnered critical acclaim for her role as “Lady Wishfort” in The Way of the World, both with ICAP. Elizabeth has acted leading roles in Charley’s Aunt, Summertime, Iphigenia in Aulis, The Bald Soprano, Whale Watchers, The Libertine, Trelawney of the Wells, A Month in the Country, The Man of Mode, Hyde Park, The Lucky Chance, The Brute, Under the Gaslight, Playboy of the Western World and played “Lady Macbeth” in a five star award winning production of Macbeth at the Edinburgh Theatre Festival.



Jacqueline Reid
JACQUELINE REID* is a founding member of FUSION. Most recently at FUSION, she was “June” in JT Rodgers’ Madagascar. She directed FUSION’s world premiere of Mad Hattr, as well as this season's acclaimed Doubt and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. She played “Beth” in Craig Wright’s Orange Flower Water, “Vera” in The Fat Man's Wife, “Catherine” in Suddenly Last Summer, “Amanda” in Private Lives, the title role in Hedda Gabler, “Laura” in The Glass Menagerie, “Stella” in A Streetcar Named Desire, “Dancer” in The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, “Kate” in The Taming of the Shrew, “Zelda Fitzgerald” in Bye, Bye Blackbird, “Anna” in Closer, “Elizabeth” in The Art of Dining, and “Maggie” in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Regional lead roles include Romeo & Juliet, Agnes of God, and Crimes of the Heart. Recent television credits include the series In Plain Sight, Unsolved Mysteries and True Confessions, in which she starred with Adam Arkin. She is a BFA graduate of The North Carolina School of the Arts.



Jen Grigg
JEN GRIGG† most recently played "Mairead" in FUSION's hair-raising production of Martin McDonough's The Lieutenant of Inishmore. She also has appeared as “The Giant” in FUSION's touring children's musical Seven at a Swat. Other productions with FUSION: “Rebecca,” The Long Christmas Ride Home; “Girl,” Mr. Paradise, and various roles in FUSION's New Works Festival: The Seven. Actors Theatre of Louisville: Aramanda, The Second Death of Priscilla (27th Annual Humana Festival). Other Theatre: "Willie," The Twilight Zones; "Lord Salisbury," King John. Ms. Grigg teaches drama at Albuquerque Academy's Summer Session and is a licensed Natural Therapeutics Specialist. Her BFA is from Cornish College of the Arts.



Robb Sisneros
ROBB SISNEROS (director) A Musical Theatre BFA from the College of Santa Fe, this Bernalillo native returns to The Cell having previously directed FUSION's production of Tennessee Williams' Mister Paradise. Other Cell credits include FUSION's For & Against ("The 7") and The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, as well as SummerWest's The Last 5 Years and I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Robb’s local directing credits also include Swingtime Canteen, Tommy, Tapestry, Always - Patsy Cline, Bat Boy, The Wiz, Beauty & The Beast (MTS), Secret Garden (UNM), Assassins, Love – Valour – Compassion (Vortex), Working (Adobe), Petra’s Pecado, Farolitos, Matachines (La Compania), and A Closer Walk With Patsy Cline (ALT). He also directed Perla & Estrella (UNM’s 2006 Words Afire Play Festival) and Guys & Dolls at ALT. He is currently in rehearsal directing Little Shop of Horrors for MTS which will open in June.
 

* member Actors Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States

† Equity Membership Candidate



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