The Marriage of Bette and Boo

By Christopher Durang

A painfully funny, Obie Award-winning play about the tragedy and comedy of family life.

Never have marriage and the family been more scathingly or hilariously savaged than in this brilliant black comedy. The Marriage of Bette and Boo brings together two of the maddest families in creation in a portrait album of life’s uncertainties and confusion. Bereaved by miscarriages, undermined by their families, separated by alcoholism, assaulted by disease, and mystified by their priest, Bette and Boo, in their bewildered attempts to provide a semblance of hearth and home, are portrayed with a poignant compassion that enriches and enlarges the play, and makes clear why Christopher Durang has become one of the great names in American theater.

“One of the most explosively funny American dramatists.”—Newsweek

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9780802188915

Book preview

THE MARRIAGE OF

Bette and Boo

---

---

---

---

---

THE MARRIAGE OF

Bette and Boo

---

---

---

---

---

by

CHRISTOPHER DURANG

Copyright © 1985 by Christopher Durang

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, or the facilitation thereof, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

CAUTION: Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this play is subject to a royalty. It is fully protected under the copyright laws of the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and all British Commonwealth countries, and all countries covered by the International Copyright Union, the Pan-American Copyright Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention. All rights, including professional, amateur, motion picture, recitation, public reading, radio broadcasting, television, video or sound taping, all other forms of mechanical or electronic reproduction, such as information storage and retrieval systems and photocopying, and rights of translation into foreign languages, are strictly reserved.

First-class professional, stock, and amateur applications for permission to perform it, and those other rights stated above, must be made in advance to the author's agent, Helen Merrill, 295 Lafayette Street, Suite 915, New York, NY 10012.

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Durang, Christopher, 1949–

The marriage of Bette and Boo.

I. Title.

PS3554.U666M31987812’.5486-33468

ISBN-10: 0-8021-3365-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-3365-6

eISBN: 978-0-8021-8891-5

Grove Press

an imprint of Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

841 Broadway

New York, NY 10003

Distributed by Publishers Group West

www.groveatlantic.com

07080910LS-06061098765

To my mother

The Marriage of Bette and Boo was first presented by the New York Shakespeare Festival (Joseph Papp, President) at the Public/Newman Theater in New York City on May 16, 1985. It was directed by Jerry Zaks; the scenery was by Loren Sherman; the costumes were by William Ivey Long; the lighting was by Paul Gallo; the original music was by Richard Peaslee; the hair was designed by Ron Frederick; the associate producer was Jason Steven Cohen; the production stage manager was James Harker; the stage manager was Pamela Singer. The cast was as follows:

Understudies: Dalton Dearborn, Patrick Garner, Lizbeth MacKay, Rose Arrick, Ann Hilliary. During the final week, Mr. Dearborn and Ms. Hilliary played Karl and Soot.

The Marriage of Bette and Boo has a long history. A fifty minute version was presented at the Yale School of Drama and at the Williamstown Theatre's Second Company. The Public Theatre production was the premiere of the expanded version.

CHARACTERS

Bette Brennan

Margaret Brennan, her mother

Paul Brennan, her father

Joan Brennan, her sister

Emily Brennan, her sister

Boo Hudlocke

Karl Hudlocke, his father

Soot Hudlocke, his mother

Father Donnally

Doctor

Matt

SCENES

Act 1

Scene1:The wedding

Scene2:The honeymoon

Scene3:Margaret gives Emily advice

Scene4:The honeymoon, continued

Scene5:Emily practices the cello

Scene6:Bette and Boo visit their in-laws

Scene7:Margaret gives Bette advice

Scene8:20 years later, Boo has dinner with his son

Scene9:The first child of Bette and Boo

Scene10:Matt's favorite movie essay; arts & crafts with Emily

Scene11:The second child of Bette and Boo

Scene12:Bette and Margaret visit Emily in a rest home

Scene13:Fr. Donnally gives Bette advice

Scene14:Soot gives Bette advice

Scene15:Matt talks about The Mayor of Casterbridge

Scene16:The third child of Bette and Boo

Scene17:Bette telephones Bonnie Wilson

Scene18:Bette and Boo celebrate Thanksgiving

Act II

Scene19:Boo takes a pledge in front of Fr. Donnally

Scene20:Bette and Boo go dancing

Scene21:Matt's holiday essay; Bette and Boo celebrate Christmas

Scene22:20 years later, Boo has dinner with his son; 20 years later, Bette has dinner with her son

Scene23:Boo's second pledge in front of Fr. Donnally

Scene24:Joan's birthday celebration

Scene25:The funeral of Paul Brennan

Scene26:The fourth child of Bette and Boo

Scene27:Fr. Donnally gives Bette advice again

Scene28:Fr. Donnally's marriage retreat

Scene29:The divorce of Bette and Boo

Scene30:Matt has dinner with Karl, Soot, Margaret and Paul

Scene31:Matt gives Emily advice

Scene32:The last child of Bette and Boo

Scene33:Matt visits Bette; Bette and Boo reminisce

ACT ONE

---

---

---

Scene 1

All the characters, in various wedding apparel, stand together to sing: the Brennan family, the Hudlocke family. Matthew stands apart from them.

All (sing):

God bless Bette and Boo and Skippy,

Emily and Boo,

Margaret, Matt, and Betsy Booey,

Mommy, Tommy too,

Betty Betsy Booey Boozey,

Soot, Karl, Matt, and Paul,

Margaret Booey, Joanie Phooey,

God bless us one and all.

(The characters now call out to one another.)

Bette: Booey? Booey? Skippy?

Boo: Pop?

Margaret: Emily, dear?

Bette: Booey?

Boo: Bette?

Karl: Is that Bore?

Soot: Karl? Are you there?

Joan: Nikkos!

Bette: Skippy! Skippy!

Emily: Are you all right, Mom?

Bette: Booey, I'm calling you!

Margaret: Paul? Where are you?

Joan: Nikkos!

Boo: Bette? Betsy?

Bette: Boo? Boo?

(Flash of light on the characters, as if their picture is being taken. Lights off the Brennans and Hudlockes. Light on Matt, late twenties or so. He speaks to the audience.)

Matt: If one looks hard enough, one can usually see the order that lies beneath the surface. Just as dreams must be put in order and perspective in order to understand them, so must the endless details of waking life be ordered and then carefully considered. Once these details have been considered, generalizations about them must be made. These generalizations should be written down legibly, and studied. The Marriage of Bette and Boo.

(Matt exits. Characters assume their places for photographs before the wedding. Boo stands to the side with his parents, Karl and Soot. Bette, in a wedding gown, poses for pictures with her family: Margaret, her mother; Emily, her sister, holding a cello; Joan, another sister, who is pregnant and is using nose spray, and Paul, her father. Bette, Margaret, Emily smile, looking out. Paul looks serious, fatherly. Joan looks sort of grouchy. Lights flash. They change positions.)

Margaret: You look lovely, Bette.

Emily: You do. Lovely.

Margaret: A lovely bride. Smile for the camera, girls. (Speaking out to either audience or to unseen photographer:) Bette was always the most beautiful of my children. We used to say that Joanie was the most striking, but Bette was the one who looked beautiful all the time. And about Emily we used to say her health wasn't good.

Emily: That's kind of you to worry, Mom, but I'm feeling much better. My asthma is hardly bothering me at all today. (Coughs lightly.)

Margaret: Boo seems a lovely boy. Betsy, dear, why do they call him Boo?

Bette: It's a nickname.

Margaret: Don't you think Bette looks lovely, Joanie?

Joan (without enthusiasm): She does. You look lovely, Bette.

Margaret: Where is Nikkos, dear?

Joan: He's not feeling well. He's in the bathroom.

Emily: Do you think we should ask Nikkos to play his saxophone with us, Joan dear?

Joan: A saxophone would sound ridiculous with your cello, Emily.

Emily: But Nikkos might feel left out.

Joan: He'll probably stay in the bathroom anyway.

Bette: Nikkos seems crazy. (Joan glares at her.) I wish you and Nikkos could've had a big wedding, Joanie.

Margaret: Well, your father didn't much like Nikkos. It just didn't seem appropriate. (Emily coughs softly.) Are you all right, Emily?

Emily: It's nothing, Mom.

Joan: You're not going to get sick, are you?

Emily: No. I'm sure I won't.

Margaret: Emily, dear, please put away your cello. It's too large.

Emily: I can't find the case.

(Joan uses her nose spray.)

Bette: I can't wait to have a baby, Joanie.

Joan: Oh yes?

Margaret (out to front again): Betsy was

Reviews for The Marriage of Bette and Boo

[devil_llama · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Sheer insanity from a master of insanity. The deep, painful themes of this play are made slightly easier to bear by the ridiculous plotting and strange staging techniques. Love, death, divorce, miscarriages, are all dealt with in such an abstract manner that they seem totally removed from the things we all live each and every day, even though we still remain painfully aware that these are, in fact, the things we all deal with each day. If I may be permitted the oxymoron, this black comedy has a savage gentleness that touches wounds, in fact rips them open, but still allows you to laugh at the blood. Few people will be fortunate enough in their life to write like this; the rest of us are fortunate that Christopher Durang can. Not for people who demand reality in art.