Play Synopsis: The Marriage Of Bette And Boo

Christopher Durang is one of the masters of modern dark comedy, and his acidic and ironic style is at its pinnacle in The Marriage of Bette and Boo. This semi-autobiographical play deals with the pain of living in a broken and dysfunctional family. Durang, who also played the character of Matt in the original run of the show, deftly paints a grotesque and hilarious caricature of his own family, in which alcoholism and mental illness tore apart the marriages of his parents and grandparents. The characters are disturbingly blithe, dealing with issue like stillborn infants and abusive relationships with a chipper sense of irony and ignorance. The play centers around Bette and Boo, who at the outset of the play have just gotten married. Bette, though a grown woman, has the thought processes of a child. Boo is a problem drinker whose alcoholism worsens throughout the play until it tears apart the titular marriage. The entire play is punctuated by narration and commentary from Durang's author surrogate, Matt (nicknamed Skippy by his mother after her favorite film). Matt tells the story like a memory play, much like Tennessee Williams' Tom in The Glass Menagerie, and his bitter and matter-of-fact discussion of the issues adds to the play's overall irony. The chronology of the play is erratic and elliptical, migrating between various periods in the life of Bette, Boo, Matt, and the sordid ensemble of ancillary characters within the extended families. The underlying linear storyline follows the marriage through Bette's multiple stillbirths (a result of a condition called erythroblastosis fetalis), the gradual erosion of her marriage to Boo due to his drinking, and the subsequent alienation of Matt from both of his parents. The play ends with Bette's death; though most of the play maintains a detached and ironic tone, the end does offer a glimpse into the real emotional toll its events took on Matt/Durang and the other characters of the play.