The Public Theater

The Public Theater and Theatre for a New Audience Present
The Wallace Shawn - André Gregory Project
A Theatrical Event Celebrating The 40-Year Collaboration Between Wallace Shawn and André Gregory

The First New York Revival of
THE DESIGNATED MOURNER
By Wallace Shawn
Directed by André Gregory

June 21 – August 25, 2013

The Designated Mourner is a monologue-triptych in which three artist-intellectuals describe their experiences as their once-liberal country sinks into totalitarianism. A famous poet-intellectual, his daughter, and her husband—people made of very different moral fiber despite their shared highbrow background—observe the subtle and flagrant transformations to everyday life, public affairs and personal relationships as their government brutally cracks down on anyone suspected of subversion. This searing and disturbing drama, prescient of much that occurred during the George W. Bush years and afterward, has been called Shawn’s masterpiece.

Presented at The Public's Shiva Theater, the cast of The Designated Mourner will include Shawn as well as Deborah Eisenberg and Larry Pine – original company members from the 2000 New York production.

The American Premiere of
GRASSES OF A THOUSAND COLORS
By Wallace Shawn
Directed by André Gregory

October 8 – November 10, 2013

Shawn’s most outlandish work to date, Grasses of a Thousand Colors, is a disturbing and anomalously beautiful play that touches on almost every imaginable form of sexual expression while spinning a dystopian fantasy about ecological disaster. Ben, the play’s central character, is a doctor who believes he has solved world hunger when he figures out how to rejigger the metabolisms of animals to tolerate eating their own kind. He ends up ruining the global ecosystem. Yet Grasses of a Thousand Colors is no mere social drama. Instead of exclusively dwelling on social disaster, it also explores the riotous sexual imaginations of Ben, his wife, and his lovers.

Grasses of a Thousand Colors which had its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre in 2009, will have its American Premiere at The Public’s Shiva Theater next fall with Shawn, Emily McDonnell and Jennifer Tilly repeating their roles in this acclaimed production.