Marriage Play
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''Marriage Play'' is a drama for two actors by Edward Albee. The play premiered at Vienna's English Theatre in 1987.


Productions

''Marriage Play'' had its world premiere at Vienna's English Theatre,
Vienna, Austria en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
on May 17, 1987. The play was commissioned by the English Theatre. The cast was Kathleen Butler (Gillian) and Tom Klunis (Jack).Albee, Edward. "Introduction", ''Edward Albee's Marriage Play'', Dramatists Play Service Inc, 1995, , p. 3 ''Marriage Play'' had its United States premiere at the
Alley Theatre The Alley Theatre is a Tony Award-winning theatre company in Houston, Texas. It is the oldest professional theatre company in Texas and the third oldest resident theatre in the United States. Alley Theatre productions have played on Broadway at L ...
, Houston, Texas, on January 8, 1992, in a co-production with the
McCarter Theatre McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg. ...
, Princeton, New Jersey. The play premiered on the East Coast at the McCarter Theatre in February 1992. Directed by Albee, the cast was Tom Klunis (Jack) and
Shirley Knight Shirley Knight Hopkins (July 5, 1936 – April 22, 2020) was an American actress who appeared in more than 50 feature films, television films, television series, and Broadway and Off-Broadway productions in her career, playing leading and charac ...
(Gillian). ''Marriage Play'' was produced Off-Broadway by the
Signature Theatre Company Signature Theatre Company is an American theatre based in Manhattan, New York. It was founded in 1991 by James Houghton and is now led by Artistic Director Paige Evans. Signature is known for their season-long focus on one artist's work. It has be ...
, running from October 1, 1993, to October 31, 1993. Directed by James Houghton, the cast was Kathleen Butler (Gillian) and Tom Klunis (Jack). The play was produced in London at the National Theatre, Cottesloe Theatre, in a double bill with '' Finding the Sun'', in May 2001. The cast was Bill Paterson and
Sheila Gish Sheila Gish (born Sheila Anne Syme Gash; 23 April 1942 – 9 March 2005) was an English actress. For her role in the 1995 London revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical '' Company'', she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance ...
, with the setting in
Richmond, Surrey Richmond is a town in south-west London,The London Government Act 1963 (c.33) (as amended) categorises the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as an Outer London borough. Although it is on both sides of the River Thames, the Boundary Comm ...
.


Overview

The play opens with a blow. Jack informs his wife that, after thirty years of marriage, he intends to leave. Gillian does not react as he would expect; therefore he enters three times more. Gillian's answers make him angry. Finally Jack collapses on a chair. After expressing his frustration and insecurity, he learns that Gillian keeps critical notes on their lovemaking; he becomes even more paralyzed. Gillian and Jack, like George and Martha in ''
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? ''Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'' is a play by Edward Albee first staged in October 1962. It examines the complexities of the marriage of a middle-aged couple, Martha and George. Late one evening, after a university faculty party, they receive ...
,'' play ritual games to express and contain their sense of life-disappointment. In the middle of the play, the couple starts fighting with each other, clawing, punching and biting, even after they fall on the floor. Exhausted by the fighting, they start to talk about the memorable times in their life. However, Gillian is determined to return to the previous insults and tells Jack he is not the only one who was unfaithful to his partner.


Critical response

The reviewer for the ''Phoenix New Times'' wrote of a 2008 production directed by Kathleen Butler (the original Gillian): "'Marriage Play' is essentially a far less sophisticated update on Albee's George and Martha, the historically high-strung hotheads of his 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' Like George and Martha, Jack and Gillian... are disappointed in their post-middle-age lives. Also like George and Martha, they don't speak to one another; they bellow. They don't communicate; they play-act, staging and restaging the same scene (in which Jack attempts to abandon his wife) until they (and we) are happily exhausted... Butler's directorial stamp is all over this, and her deep knowledge of Albee's work allows us to hear clearly his peculiar rhythms, to see how he — and the people in this marriage play — envisions life as an act in an often-dreary theatrical story."Pela, Robert L
"'Marriage Play' Spices Up A Worn-Oot Relationship With Battle Sequences And Admissions Of Infidelity"
''Phoenix New Times'' , October 23, 2008


References

{{Albee Plays by Edward Albee Adultery in plays 1986 plays