Limited Engagement
Remount
Performances
Apr 10, 2026 -
Apr 25, 2026
Cast & Personnel
Director
Cast
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Stage Manager
The Play
"Theres something particularly disingenuous and cheap about extricating oneself from the human struggle with the whispered excuse that its already over."- W.S.
Greg Dean plays Jack, a self-described “former student of English literature who went downhill from there.” Patricia Duran plays Jack’s refined, stolid ex-wife Judy. Charlie Scott plays Judy’s famous father Howard, an esteemed writer whose early expressions of sympathy for his nation’s poor continue to pose a threat to him and his circle.
According to director Jason Nodler, “One problem with most political theatre is that, for whatever reason, those who attend the theatre and those who work in it tend to share a broad set of values. In that environment political theatre is unable to perform its most basic function. The Designated Mourner works as political theatre because it doesn’t function as political theatre. There’s no moral to the story. There’s no apparent debate. Questions of right and wrong come quietly, even covertly, encouraging you to ask yourself again and again, ‘Would I do that? Am I doing it now? Is it the right thing to do?’ That’s why it works as political theatre. The real debate happens after the play.”
The Catastrophic Theatre has a long history with Wallace Shawn. We have produced Our Late Night, Marie and Bruce, Evening at the Talk House, and The Designated Mourner. Twice.
"A dangerous writer. A rare species. He tells people things about themselves that they don’t want to know."- Joseph Papp on Wallace Shawn
Dean, Duran, and Nodler reprise their roles from the 2017 production. They are joined by Charlie Scott, a Catastrophic/IBP company member for 30 years whose acting credits include Waiting for Godot (Estragon), Evening at The Talk House (Dick) and Marie and Bruce (Bruce).
The Playwright
WALLACE SHAWN is best known for his character roles in such films as The Princess Bride, Toy Story, Young Sheldon, Clueless, Star Trek, and Annie Hall as well as his more serious turns in the films My Dinner with Andre and Vanya on 42th Street, but acting for him is something of a day job. His primary mode of expression is his writing and he is a writer unlike any other.
His plays include What We Did Before Our Moth Days, Grasses of a Thousand Colors, The Fever, The Designated Mourner, Evening at the Talk House, Aunt Dan and Lemon, and Marie and Bruce. He also co-wrote the screenplay for My Dinner with Andre with Andre Gregory, and he scripted and starred in Vanya on 42nd Street, a film adaptation of Anton Chekov’s play Uncle Vanya. His 2014 film A Master Builder was based on the play by Henrik Ibsen.
Critical praise for Catastrophic’s 2010 and 2017 productions of The Designated Mourner
“Gut-wrenchingly visceral… pierces the darkness of the human experience… Directed by Jason Nodler with heart-crushing grace and beautifully acted by this smart cast. Dean gives the performance of his career here.”Lee Williams, Houston Press
“Quietly stunning… Artistic director Jason Nodler and his Catastrophic team have done it again. They’ve taken a uniquely challenging, unsettling and multilayered piece of theatrical writing, put their stamp on it and brought it to life with intimacy, immediacy and a sense of urgency.”Everett Evans, Houston Chronicle
“To its enormous credit, the play will leave each audience member unraveling a different thread of thought by the end of the night, but there is no doubt that all will agree on the manifold virtues of its execution.”David Feil, The Houstonist
“If you get to know The Designated Mourner and grow fond of its enigmatic, probing use of words, you might in turn become bored with every other, more inferior play whose characters say exactly what they mean, ask only the obvious questions and exist in worlds whose mysteries lie merely in plot. Devoid of clichés and predictability, it’s a play with none of the machinery of theater, yet it brings forth ideas and images of such primacy you’ll chew on them for days.”Wei-Huan Chen, Houston Chronicle
“[R]evived magnificently by Catastrophic… Director Jason Nodler, who has a beatific fondness for this play, stages it with exquisite lightness; one might say he plays it like Schubert… Wry and bleak, the play will not make you feel any better about the state of the union; in fact it may leave you even sadder, but you will leave knowing that the state of avant garde theater is very much alive and in very fine hands.”D.L. Groover, Houston Press
“All three actors are exquisitely cast and perform the material excellently. Patricia Duran plays the fierce daughter and her icy cool veneer cracks gorgeously once the script calls for it. Yet the evening belongs to Greg Dean. His performances are always studied and well executed and this is one of his best to date. [The Designated Mourner] asks hard questions about what the “dumbing down” of a society means to humanity, and serves as a cautionary tale in this age of fake news and entertainment masquerading as information.”Brett Cullum, Broadway World
“This was a distinct case of intriguing artists doing killer work. More specifically, doing killer work because they were all in it together… When [Jason] Nodler gets it right, it’s very very right… the production itself thrills. This is [Greg] Dean at his finest. [Patricia] Duran’s eyes blaze at us from the stage and we hang on her every word… My advice is simple–take a chance to be wowed.”Jessica Goldman, Applause Meter
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