Marie and Bruce
Performances
Nov 22, 2013 -
Dec 14, 2013
“Darling, why is it that whenever we have a conversation you always feel sick?”
Cast & Personnel
Director
Assistant Director
Cast
- Tamarie Cooper
- Greg Dean
- Jeanne Harris
- Karina Pal Montaño-Bowers
- Charlie Scott
- Kyle Sturdivant
- Abraham Zeus Zapata
Scenic Design
Costume Design
Lighting Design
Sound Design
Prop Design
Stage Manager
Assistant Stage Manager
Booth Crew
The Play
Marie and Bruce have been married a very long time. Maybe ten years, maybe six months. Either way, a very long time.
The play begins on the morning that Marie plans to leave Bruce. They wake up. They have their coffee. We see the very different people they become when alone. They meet at a party. They go to dinner. Seemingly trivial moments in their relationship accumulate like ice on a power line.
The Catastrophic Theatre’s love of Wallace Shawn is well documented by its hit productions of Our Late Night and The Designated Mourner, each of which was declared a “can’t miss” production by major critics in Houston. Audiences returned again and again, armed with friends.
Jason Nodler, Tamarie Cooper, and Charlie Scott first collaborated on this play in 1999 with Infernal Bridegroom Productions.
In the Houston Press review of the 1999 production Lee Williams wrote:
“Infernal Bridegroom’s riotous production of his Marie and Bruce is a perfect entree into the spiny wit of Shawn’s verbal imagination… Shawn’s message is undeniably bleak, but it is also very, very funny… We talk and talk and giggle and curse, but no matter what words, what sounds we use, we can never find our way into each other’s hearts.”
In special celebration of their 20 years making theatre together, Nodler, Cooper, and Scott will reprise their roles as director and lead actors in Marie and Bruce, a devastating comedy about a terrible marriage that will probably last forever. Sounds like our kind of holiday play.
The Playwright
WALLACE SHAWN is an American actor, voice actor, stand-up comedian, singer, dancer, playwright, and essayist, best known for appearing in film roles, such as Wally Shawn in the Louis Malle-directed comedy-drama My Dinner with Andre (1981), Vizzini in The Princess Bride (1987), Ezra in The Haunted Mansion, providing the voice of Rex in the Toy Story franchise, providing the voice of Gilbert Huph in The Incredibles (2004), and providing the voice of Calico in Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore (2010). He also starred in a variety of television series, including Gossip Girl and recurring appearances as Grand Nagus Zek in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993-99). His plays include The Designated Mourner, Aunt Dan and Lemon, and Grasses of a Thousand Colors. He also co-wrote the screenplay for My Dinner with Andre with Andre Gregory, and he scripted Vanya on 42nd Street, a film adaptation of Anton Chekov's play Uncle Vanya. His latest film from June 2014 was A Master Builder based on the play by Henrik Ibsen.
"A dangerous writer. A very rare species. He tells people things about themselves that they don't want to know."- Joseph Papp on Wallace Shawn
The Catastrophic Theatre's love of Wallace Shawn is well documented by its hit productions of Our Late Night and The Designated Mourner, each of which was declared a "can't miss" production by major critics in Houston. Audiences returned again and again, armed with friends.
Shawn is best known for his character roles in such films as The Princess Bride, Clueless, 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.
In the Media
‘Marie and Bruce’ looks for love in the ruins
November 27, 2013 |
Houston Chronicle
| Everett Evans
Marie and Bruce Present a Day in Marriage Hell Without an Intermission
November 25, 2013 |
Houston Press
| D.L. Groover
BWW Reviews: The Catastrophic Theatre’s MARIE AND BRUCE is Gut Wrenching Dark Comedy
November 24, 2013 |
Broadway World
| David Clarke
Actors have grown into roles in ‘Marie and Bruce’
November 17, 2013 |
Houston Chronicle
| Everett Evans
Photo Sets
Videos
"A dangerous writer...
A very rare species. He tells people things about themselves that they don’t want to know.”
— Joseph Papp on Wallace Shawn
