Menu

Close

The Cryptogram

Learn more:

This event has passed

Set in 1959, the play follows a ten-year-old boy who tries to understand why his father has not arrived to pick him up for a fishing trip.  Unable to sleep, he discovers a letter telling him that his father is leaving the family.  In the course of the play, his mother Donny discovers that she is ill-equipped to comfort her haunted insomniac son or deal with her close family friend Del, who has facilitated her husband’s infidelities.

Credits

Creative team

Written and directed by

David Mamet

Written and directed by

David Mamet

In addition to Boston Marriage, David Mamet is the author of the plays The Old Neighborhood, Oleanna, Glengarry Glen Ross (1984 Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle Award), American Buffalo, A Life In The Theater, Speed The Plow, Edmond Lakeboat, The Water Engine, The Woods, Sexual Perversity In Chicago, Reunion, and The Cryptogram (1995 Obie Award). His translations and adaptations include Red River by Pierre Laville, and The Cherry Orchard, Three Sisters, and Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov. His films include The Postman Always Rings Twice, The Verdict, The Untouchables, House Of Games (writer / director), Oleanna (writer / director), and Hoffa. Mr. Mamet is also the author of Warm and Cold, a book for children with drawings by Donald Sultan; Writing In Restaurants, Some Freaks and Make Believe Town, three volumes of essays; The Hero Pony, a book of poems; Three Children's Plays, On Directing Film, The Cabin, True And False, and the novel The Village.

View full biography

Set design by

John Lee Beautty

Costume design by

Harriet Voyt

Costume design by

Harriet Voyt

Harriet Voyt (Costume Designer for The Old Neighborhood) designed costumes for the productions of The Cryptogram and Oleanna, both at the A.R.T. and in New York, as well as for the national tour of Oleanna. She attended the University of Maryland before embarking on a successful modeling career that spanned three continents over the course of a dozen years. Beginning with the prestigious Eileen Ford Modeling Agency in the 1970s, Miss Voyt achieved early success in Paris, Milan, and Tokyo while maintaining her base in New York City. She appeared in virtually all the major beauty and fashion magazines, both internationally and in the U.S., as well as in numerous commercial print and television ads for a host of national products.

View full biography

Lighting design by

Dennis Parichy

Cast

Del

Ed Begley Jr.

Del

Ed Begley Jr.

Donny

Felicity Huffman

Felicity Huffman has appeared at the American Repertory Theater as Anna in Boston Marriage and as Donny in The Cryptogram, a role she subsequently performed Off-Broadway and for which she won the 1997 Obie Award. Her other Off-Broadway credits include Dangerous Corner, Oh Hell!, and Boy's Life, and she has appeared on Broadway in Speed-the-Plow. Ms. Huffman is also a long-time member of New York's Atlantic Theater Company, co-founded by David Mamet and her husband, William H. Macy, where Mr. Macy recently directed her in The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite. On television she recently won an Emmy for her work on Desperate Housewives; previously she starred in the critically acclaimed comedy Sports Night and appeared in various guest roles on popular series including Law and Order, Chicago Hope, and The X-Files. Her film credits include Hackers, Reversal of Fortune, Things Change, and The Spanish Prisoner.

View full biography

John

Shelton Dane

John

Shelton Dane