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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Finally, the Long Awaited All-Female David Mamet Play!, January 7, 2003
For all the actress who have been waiting for great female characters from writer David Mamet, the wait is over! This is a lovely fantasy about a scandalous, tawdry lesbian couple circa 1900. Think Les Liaisons Dangereuses meets the women in Satre's No Exit. The dialogue is wonderfully paced, intensely comic, and astonishingly inventive. Mamet seems to reinvent and reinvigorate his writing with this play. This is the playwright in a playful and endearing mood, writing about comically vicious and self-centered women who nevertheless win our hearts. The plays seems to be reversing the classical notion of the nineteenth century rake (a womanizing man- often cast as the hero in historical romances). This time it is the women who are sexually controlling, on the hunt for new flesh, cavalier with romantic feelings, and casually selfish about creature pleasures. There are lots of great two or three women scenes in this for actors' and directors' class work and showcase pieces. 90% of the play is a duologue between two women, with a maid who pops in and out.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A clever and cruel marriage (4.4 on a scale of 1-5), November 16, 2003
David Mamet can definitely write about women and for women as demonstrated by his play "Boston Marriage." The play's underlying story concerns two turn of the century women who have lived together in Boston in a "Boston Marriage" (a term that refers to a long term female couple usually involved both emotionally and physically). The couple live on the fringes of fashionable society, a world that they both care for deeply despite their unorthodox behavior. One woman, Anna, has recently taken on a wealthy lover to support their luxurious lifestle. The other, Claire, has recently become infatuated with a young woman (perhaps in retaliation for Anna taking a lover) and wants Anna to help her in her assignation. Meanwhile, both women delight in abusing their parlor maid, Catherine, whose name or nationality they never bother to remember. Mamet's play sparkles because of its tart, crisp dialogue and brisk pacing. These women delight in tortuting each other, their lovers, their friends, and of course, their maid. Mamet neatly delineates the tremendous importance of class structure at this time: the women's snobbishness towards their immigrant help is absolutely appalling. Both women clearly crave acceptance by good society while at the same time flouting its rules. I would recommend "Boston Marriage" to those who enjoy Mamet, female-driven books and theater, and modern plays.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Subtext Doesn't Count as Action, March 19, 2007
This review is from: Boston Marriage - Acting Edition (Paperback)
Two women live together in a "Boston Marriage" (a long-term living arrangement between women), trying to weasel their way up into high class society but never quite making it. The dialogue of this play is witty and quick. The scenes are scarce. And the subtext of the relationship tensions will appeal to any and all Bronte/Austen fans out there. For the rest of us, not so much.
-- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens
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