THE MARRIAGE OF BETTE AND BOO | SYNOPSIS AND TONE SYNOPSIS Bette and Boo is the work of Christopher Durang (Beyond Therapy, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All for You, Laughing Wild, Baby with the Bathwater...), a master of comedy with a mordant, absurd and often heartbreaking edge. This is a memory play—a child’s coming to terms with his parents’ life story. It’s effectively Durang’sGlass Menagerie. And it deals with many of his pet issues: the seeming impossibility of relationships, the contradictions of the Catholic Church, the search for order and meaning in a chaotic and often cruel existence. Matt, a young graduate student, narrates and participates in the story of the marital life of his parents, Bette and Boo, who begin as two young people with a bright and picture-perfect future in front of them. Over 33 quick scenes, we go through three decades in the lives of the Brennan family (Bette, her parents, Paul and Margaret, and her two sisters, Joanie and Emily) and the Hudlocke family (Boo and his parents, Karl and Soot)—ever guided by the family priest, Father Donnally—as they experience marriage, divorce, alcoholism, nervous breakdowns and death. The Marriage of Bette and Boo is a hilarious tragedy to be played by an ensemble cast with expert comic timing and complete dramatic honesty. TONE Christopher Durang’s writing can be hard to pin down in terms of tone. His comic dialogue may read as outrageous and over-the-top, but he is in fact writing about very human, often tragic events. The intention is never to make light of these events or to make fun of the people experiencing them. Over the course of the play, for example, Bette loses several children, Paul lives in the aftermath of a stroke, Emily is institutionalized for “nerves....” The humor comes from the desperate lengths that these very real characters are forced to go to in order to preserve themselves and get through these situations. It also comes from the largely unsuccessful attempts of these characters to communicate with one another. But no one in this play is stupid. No one in this play is ridiculous. In terms of acting the parts, then, we’re not looking for “stylized” performances. We’re not looking for stagy or campy acting, and we’re not looking for any self-consciousness on the part of our performers. What this play needs is for the clear, straightforward emotions of each scene to be played out honestly. The stakes and energy are incredibly high for these characters. And that’s how you make what might be a movie-of-the-week into a play that leaves you both heartbroken and crying with laughter..