The Marriage of Bette and Boo

by Christopher Durang

Book Overview

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 family 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...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802133657
• ISBN13: 9780802133656
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Grove Press
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

"You don't vacuum gravy."

In this blackest of black comedies, Obie Award-winning playwright Christopher Durang tackles some of the saddest and most emotionally devastating issues in life and somehow wrests humor from them. Focusing on the marriage of Bette and Boo as the linchpin around which all the action turns, he shows them apparently following the examples of their families, as they marry without a lot of thought, and then suffer. Their son Matt (Skippy) is the narrator for many of the scenes, sometimes commenting on events in which he could not have participated, as he tries to make some sense out of his family history. "Life must be ordered and then carefully considered," he intones in the opening scene, adding in the next scene that "when all the facts are not immediately available, one must try to reconstruct them" through "hearsay, gossip, and apocryphal stories." The circumstances which are the grist for Durang's onstage humor are unlikely subjects for humor, to say the least. Boo is an alcoholic and does not communicate. Bette, who has an Rh problem (in the years before this was treatable), insists on believing her priest and not her doctor and gives birth to four dead babies during the play. Her father, Paul, a stroke victim, insists on talking but can't be understood. One sister, Emily, suffers a breakdown after leaving a convent but still believes in miracles. Another sister has a disastrous marriage. The priest, called on for help in several scenes, jokes about Paul's speech problems and even about an albino humpback with a harelip, and can never stay on-topic. One character dies while eating cake and spends much of the play sitting in a chair, covered with a sheet. Another dies of cancer. Because the play's thirty-three short scenes jump around in time and location, the author has included extensive notes at the end of the script, indicating how split-second scene changes can take place, how sets can be designed, how the costuming can be adapted from scene to scene, what music to include, and even how the characters can be played. A reader would find it helpful to read these first in order to imagine the production. The humor is black, and the existential message of the play will not appeal to everyone, but for those fascinated by a writer's ability to turn even the darkest of subjects into a contemporary comedy, this is a play not to be missed. Mary Whipple

Beautifully written

Durang has crafted a beautiful and hilarious tale. Matt, the narrator, flips back and forth through time, recalling, in a surreal fashion, the events of his parents' marriage, his childhood, and the derision that ripped through his family. The script is hysterical, but it also brings up a painful, touching and ultimately comforting realization--you can't know it all. As crazy as your mother may be, she is still more vulnerable than most children. Your father may be an alcoholic, but he may also be hopelessly in love with your mother. Hate yourself for laughing at four stillbirths, and wonder why you cry at some of the nonsensical dialogue. Read this play to realize the world isn't black and white, and some things just aren't meant to make sense. This is truly a beautiful script.