Performing Arts Department to present Boston Marriage Nov. 20 to 23

David Mamet is perhaps the most instantly recognizable playwright of his generation, known for terse, highly stylized and strategically crude plays — such as Glengarry Glen Ross (1984), Speed-the-Plow (1988) and Oleanna (1992) — that relentlessly dissect contemporary masculinity.

But this month Washington University’s Performing Arts Department (PAD) in Arts & Sciences will showcase another side of Mamet with Boston Marriage, a sharp and sometimes shocking drawing room comedy centered on a pair of genteel Victorian women.

Performances of Boston Marriage take place in the A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 20, 21 and 22; and at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 22 and 23. Tickets are $15 — $9 for students, senior citizens and Washington University faculty and staff — and are available through the Edison Theatre Box Office, (314) 935-6543, and all MetroTix outlets.

The A.E. Hotchner Studio Theatre is located in the Mallinckrodt Student Center, 6445 Forsyth Blvd. For more information, call (314) 935-6543.

Written in 1999, this tart, bantering tale explores the relationship between Claire and Anna, two scheming “women of fashion” whose intimate, long-term relationship is euphemistically referred to as a “Boston marriage.” Claire, returning from a long (and unexplained) absence, discovers that Anna has become mistress to a wealthy man, who has given her an enormous emerald necklace and income to match. But Claire has designs of her own. Infatuated with a respectable young lady, she tries to enlist the jealous Anna’s help in arranging a tryst. But when the young lady appears in Anna’s foyer, an unexpected crisis threatens both women’s futures.

“Boston Marriage is hysterically funny and quintessentially Mamet,” says director Annamaria Pileggi, senior lecturer in drama. “Even though it focuses on women, and even though it’s set in an historical context, we’re still dealing with con artists. I think the fact that they’re lesbian is basically incidental for him.

“Many things are never said, and a lot is left ambiguous,” Pileggi continues. “We don’t know anything about these women’s backgrounds or history. The focus is on their relationship, which is sexually charged but which has now somewhat cooled. And so they scam one another, or think that they’re scamming one another, because that’s the only way that they can find intimacy — the only way left to communicate their love.

“Mamet’s use of language is very interesting,” Pileggi adds. “The writing is recognizably his, but more flowery and genteel — almost a nod to Oscar Wilde or Noel Coward. But then at times the repartee becomes utterly, scathingly crass, which immediately shatters that genteel frame and contemporizes the play.

“In the end I don’t think Boston Marriage really has much to do with the history of Boston marriages or Victorian America,” Pileggi concludes. “It’s Mamet having fun with language and exploring strong characters who happen to be female.

“Anna and Claire make no apologies, and he makes no apologies for them.”

The three-person cast stars seniors Kaylin Boosalis as Anna and Shauna Kramer as Claire. Also featured is senior Adina Talve-Goodman as Catherine, Anna’s hapless parlor maid. The period costumes and sets — the latter complete with chintz wallpaper and wainscoting — are by junior Laura Mart and senior Kerith Parashak, respectively. Props and lighting are by senior Laura Castanon; sound is by senior Will Calvert.