Helen, a manipulative alcoholic mother, complains about her grouchy baby and cannot bring herself to change its diapers. Her husband, John, who has recently been laid off, exists on Quaaludes and Nyquil. Incabable of checking for proof, they assume the child is female and name it Daisy. It is not until the child is fifteen that he tells his parents about the mistake. The nanny takes over the household. She provides career counseling for the mother, seduces the father, and finds a permanent place in their bed. In Act II, Daisy appears as a college student, talking to the faceless voice of a psychologist.
Photos & Videos
Credits
Creative team
By
Christopher Durang
Christopher Durang (The Idiots Karamazov) is the author of The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award, Dramatists Guild Award), Baby with the Bathwater, and Media Amok, all presented at the American Repertory Theater; as well as A History of the American Film (Tony nomination), The Actor's Nightmare, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You (Obie Award), Beyond Therapy, Laughing Wild, Durang/Durang (an evening of six plays including a Tennassee Williams parody For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls), Sex and Longing, and Betty's Summer Vacation (Drama Desk nomination). As a performer, Mr. Durang appeared in Laughing Wild in Los Angeles, shared an acting ensemble Obie for The Marriage of Bette and Boo in New York, and with John Augustine and Sherry Anderson has performed his cabaret Chris Durang and Dawne in numerous venues, winning a 1996 Bistro Award. He co-wrote with Sigourney Weaver and performed in the Brecht–Weill parody Das Lusitania Songspiel, appeared with Julie Andrews in the Sondheim review Putting It Together, and in Call Me Madam. His films include The Secret of My Success, Mr. North, The Butcher's Wife, Housesitter, The Cowboy Way, The Object of My Affection, and The Out-of-Towners. For television Mr. Durang wrote for the Carol Burnett special "Carol and Robin and Whoopi and Carl" and for the PBS series Trying Times. He has written several screenplays and two sitcom pilots. Mr. Durang has an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, is the winner of numerous scholarship and grants, and had his plays published by Grove Press and Smith & Kraus. Since 1994 he and Marsha Norman have co-chaired the Playwrighting Program at the Juilliard School.
Directed by
Mark Linn-Baker
Set design by
Don Soulé
Costume design by
Elizabeth Perlman
Lighting design by
Thom Palm
Sound design by
Randolph C. Head
Cast
Mother
Cherry Jones
Mother
Cherry Jones
A.R.T.: Cherry was a founding member of the A.R.T. and has appeared multiple times on its stage, including: King Lear, Twelfth Night (with Diane Lane), Three Sisters, As You Like It, The Serpent Woman, Life is a Dream, The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Major Barbara, Love’s Labors Lost, Lysistrata. Broadway and Off-Broadway: Doubt (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award), The Heiress (Tony Award, Drama Desk Award), Pride’s Crossing (Drama Desk Award), Lincoln Center Theater; Angels in America; Imaginary Friends; Moon for the Misbegotten (Tony Award nomination); The Night of the Iguana; Our Country’s Good (Tony Award nomination); Faith Healer; Mrs. Warren’s Profession; The Baltimore Waltz (OBIE Award). Television: “24” (Emmy Award for role as President Allison Taylor), “What Makes a Family,” and most recently as Dr. Judith Evans in “Awake.” Film: Ocean’s Twelve, Cradle Will Rock, The Horse Whisperer, The Perfect Storm, Erin Brockovich, Signs, The Village, Mother and Child, Swimmers, Terrence Malick’s upcoming film Knight of Cups.
Father/Voice of Psychologist
Tony Shalhoub
Father/Voice of Psychologist
Tony Shalhoub
Tony Shalhoub most recently appeared at the American Repertory Theater in the role of Bobby in The Old Neighborhood, having appeared previously in eighteen A.R.T. productions over four seasons. His roles included He in Diderot's Rameau's Nephew (which he also played off-Broadway), Pozzo in Waiting for Godot (1983), Joseph Surface in The School for Scandal, Angelo in Measure for Measure, Solyony in Three Sisters, Spear in the premiere of Rundown, and The Son in Six Characters in Search of an Author. A 1980 graduate of the Yale School of Drama, he performed in seven productions at the Yale Repertory Theatre, appearing as Vince in Buried Child, and Crotch and General Laskey in Ubu Rex. Tony has appeared on Broadway in The Heidi Chronicles and Conversations with My Father (Tony Award nomination), in Zero Positive and For Dear Life at the Public Theater, and Richard III and Henry IV, Part I at Shakespeare-in-the-Park. Other resident credits include Progress at the Long Wharf Theatre, and Rum and Coke at Coconut Grove. Film credits include the highly acclaimed Big Night opposite Stanley Tucci, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Honeymoon in Vegas, Barton Fink, Longtime Companion, and Quick Change. On television, Mr. Shalhoub played Ian Stark on the NBC series Stark Raving Mad, and was a regular cast member on the long-running series Wings. He has also appeared in The Equalizer, Spencer for Hire, and numerous TV movies including Day One, in which he portrayed Enrico Fermi.
Nanny/First Woman in the Park/Principal
Marianne Owen
Nanny/First Woman in the Park/Principal
Marianne Owen
Marianne Owen returned to the A.R.T. this season to play Mrs. Sorby in The Wild Duck and The Mother in Six Characters in Search of an Author. She appeared in fourteen productions during the first four seasons at the A.R.T., and took part in its first European tour. Since that time she has worked at Playwrights Horizons, the New York Shakespeare Festival, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Guthrie Theater, Yale Repertory Theatre, the The Goodman Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and Arizona Theatre Co.; and has been a company member at the Seattle Repertory Theatre for the past nine years, acting in over twenty-eight productions. Her roles include Maggie in Dancing at Lughnasa, Grusha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Bananas in House of Blue Leaves, Betty in Landscape of the Body, Heidi in The Heidi Chronicles, and Frosine in The Miser. She also played Charlotte in the national tour of Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing with Brian Bedford.
Cynthia/Second Woman in the Park/Miss Pringle/Susan
Karen MacDonald
Cynthia/Second Woman in the Park/Miss Pringle/Susan
Karen MacDonald
Irina Nikolayevna Arkadina in The Seagull. A.R.T.: founding member, sixty-six productions including Elena Ceausescu in The Communist Dracula Pageant, When It's Hot, It's Cole, Luisa in Cardenio, Margrethe Bohr in Copenhagen, Kitty Farmer in Donnie Darko, A Marvelous Party!, Mrs. Bumble in Oliver Twist (also at Theatre for A New Audience and Berkeley Repertory Theatre), Island of Slaves, the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, Estelle in No Exit, Ellen in Olly's Prison, Anna in Dido, Queen of Carthage, Madamoiselle in The Provok'd Wife, Frosine in The Miser, Meg in The Birthday Party, Hippolyta/Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream, several roles in Highway Ulysses, Kalonika in Lysistrata, Simonne Evrard in Marat/Sade, Emilia in Othello, the Duchess of Gloucester and Duchess of York in Richard II, the title role in Mother Courage, and Madam Yelena Popov/Nastasya in Three Farces and a Funeral. She has also appeared as Paulina in The Winter's Tale, Translator/Ursula in Full Circle, Zinaida in Ivanov, Anaïs Nin in The Idiots Karamazov, The Maid in Charlie in the House of Rue, Eileen in The Cripple of Inishmaan, Enone in Phaedra, Margaret Brennan in The Marriage of Bette and Boo, Female Interviewer in Valparaiso, Beline in The Imaginary Invalid, the Chorus Leader in The Bacchae, Mrs. Darling in Peter Pan and Wendy, Mrs. Pierson in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Gena in The Wild Duck, Smeraldina in The King Stag, Karen in Six Characters in Search of an Author, and in Big River, School for Scandal, and Baby With the Bathwater. New York: Roundabout Theatre, Second Stage, Playwright's Horizons, and Actors' Playhouse. Regional: The Misanthrope (Arsinöe, Berkshire Theatre Festival), Infestation (Mother, Boston Playwrights Theatre), Twelfth Night (Maria, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company), The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Maureen) and The Last Night of Ballyhoo (Boo, Vineyard Playhouse), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (Martha, Elliot Norton Award) and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (Frankie, Merrimack Repertory Theatre), As You Like It (Rosalind, Shakespeare & Co), Shirley Valentine (Shirley, Charles Playhouse). Other: Alley Theatre (Company member), the Goodman Theatre, the Wilma Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, Geva Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Buffalo Studio Arena, Cincinnati Playhouse, Philadelphia Festival of New Plays.
Young Man
Stephen Rowe
Young Man
Stephen Rowe
Stephen Rowe (Tito Belcredi in Enrico IV) is a founding member of the A.R.T. company whose work includes A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Lulu, Man and Superman, The Wild Duck, and his one-man show Albee's Men (which opened the 2002 season at the Berkshire Theatre Festival). His Broadway credits include The Nerd, Some Americans Abroad, Serious Money, and Spoils of War. New York Shakespeare Festival audiences have seen him in The Tempest, Macbeth, Coming of Age in Soho, A Private View, and The Normal Heart. His extensive working relationship with Edward Albee includes The Zoo Story and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Vienna's English Theatre, the international Albee Directs Albee project, and last season's Tiny Alice Off-Broadway. Since his last A.R.T. appearance in Full Circle, he has performed in Mark Lamos's School for Scandal and in Emily Mann's Romeo and Juliet, both at the McCarter Theatre; and in Defying Gravity at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre. Mr. Rowe has performed at Yale Repertory Theatre, Hartford Stage, Williamstown Theatre Festival, A Contemporary Theatre in Seattle, and has received the Bay Area Theatre Critics Award for his performarnce in Berkeley Rep's Sight Unseen, and the DramaLogue Award for So Many Words at South Coast Repertory in Los Angeles. He has been seen on television in Law and Order, E.R., Cheers, Wings, L.A. Law, Beverly Hills 90210, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and in the films Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and Basic Instinct.