Wallace Shawn’s WHAT WE DID BEFORE OUR MOTH DAYS Extends Off-Broadway

Wallace Shawn’s new play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days, directed by André Gregory, will be extended for an additional two weeks through Sunday, May 10, at the Greenwich House Theater (27 Barrow St). The production stars Hope Davis, Maria Dizzia, John Early, and Josh Hamilton. Currently in previews, What We Did Before Our Moth Days will have an official opening night on Thursday, March 5.

This play celebrates the legendary, lifelong collaboration between Wallace Shawn and André Gregory that began with Mr. Shawn’s play Our Late Night, directed by Mr. Gregory at The Public Theatre in 1975 – a production that buoyed the experimental theater movement of the era.  Among their renowned film collaborations are 1981’s My Dinner with Andre (co-written by and starring the two men); and Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), a filmed adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya which they workshopped for years.  In 2000, Mr. Gregory directed the New York production of Mr. Shawn’s The Designated Mourner, produced by Mr. Rudin.  It was named one of the greatest American plays of the past 25 years in 2018 by The New York Times.

What We Did Before Our Moth Days is set in an urban world of intelligent and somewhat gentle middle-class people – a father, mother, son, and the long-time mistress of the father, who tell the intimate story of their lives. Mr. Shawn, a student of morality whose plays have brought us frank truths about politics and sexuality, takes on the subject of love – suffocating and freeing – and the kaleidoscopic journeys we make through remorse, sorrow, resentment, and joy. Mr. Shawn and Mr. Gregory have created a work that is as strange, and at times hilarious, as My Dinner with André.

About the play, Wallace Shawn (who is also co-producing) said, “We don’t understand ourselves, and we don’t know why we do what we do. Ideally, then, dangerous weapons should be always kept out of our hands, but in romantic, sexual, and familial relationships we carry the weapon of our own feelings strapped to our chests whether we like it or not. This is a play about four intelligent and thoughtful people – mother, father, son, and father’s mistress – living in a somewhat violent but sophisticated city.”

And about their association, André Gregory added, “My life in the theater has often been my life with Wally Shawn. I have been his acting teacher, his collaborator, his director, his friend. We have done plays together and we have done films together. We have been partners for over half a century. And with his new play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days, we are continuing the tradition. We are still going strong. Together.”