Theater: Boston Marriage

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Kate Burton and Martha Plimpton star in David Mamet's Boston Marriage, directed by Karen Kohlhaas. "Boston Marriage" is better described as the drawing-room comedy of manners that is very well set in America in the late 19th century. "Boston Marriage" really explores love, class, and sexuality through the intimate relationship of two beautiful women and an unusual controversy that really ensues when their friendship is defined.

David Mamet has been deeply credited with reinventing the true sense of American theatrical language. David's cryptic, terse, and often very profane dialogue, widely accepted and known as Mametspeak, is very well marked by a superb staccato highly and stylized rhythm. David's best known plays usually revolve around tough male macho characters in very grungy settings. In this gripping play, Mamet has really abandoned grunge for so called elegance, and superb gritty verbal exchanges for the very high flown parlor talk of two fashionable Victorian ladies whose deep relationship typifies the tremendous living arrangements of many simple and unmarried women of the very good period and most famously and purposely fictionalized in Henry James' popular novel, The Bostonians. Anna and Claire are very much With Martha Plimpton and Kate Burton, quite resplendent in Paul Tazwell's famous waist cinching outfits and Paul Huntley's well adapted wigs, this amazing production of Boston Marriage is remarkably blessed with two unusual and delightful dueling partners; Burton's tremendous comedic skills are superb.

This superb comedy is rated as "an anarchic tribute to the drawing room comedy", this tremendous presentation of David Mamet's play amazingly tells the gripping story of Claire and Anna, two single and desperate women in 19th Century Boston, who peacefully live and love together. As the famous tradition dictates, the women really find themselves in somewhat sexual complications with a good looking married man and there's even a beautiful maid that keeps making unusual brief appearances; then followed the turning point as any traditionalists going to see would feel the deep shock. The unusual maid may really come in and out with that startling regularity but she gives the tremendous performance and as characters would have a so called collective nervous breakdown.

As the play starts, Claire, just hurriedly back from a "sojourn," pops and her head cartoonishly into the well defined drawing room. This is the astonishing beginning and now she is soon joined by another slinky Anna, who really pops sweetmeats and tremendously sports a very valuable new necklace. As it goes, each specified woman has some incredible news. In Claire's absence, Anna has really acquired a real "protector," some so called very good and smitten old swain whose very generosity will definitely underwrite her; followed by the reaction of the dramatic paramour. The familiar object of Claire's famous lust has been very well presented. Within this famous framework; on a so called whimsical set that is very well festooned by a very good black-and-white-striped proscenium valance and some beautiful hand-painted placards. The settings are very decorated and presented with some humorous formality and some unusual and bitchy sniping, good looking arcane construction.

The director amazingly mixes quick fire verbal humor with some very good elements of farce and a tremendous and considerable amount of anachronistic speech. This speech is possibly means a demonstration of the timelessness of this beautiful subject matter. The amazing strand of farce is very articulated directed and beautifully presented to get the feel of all the elements. Mamet incredibly explores and parodies different literary styles with some often using very precious and good language.