The Treasurer
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
Written by
Max Posner
Directed by David Cromer
World premiere
Playwrights Horizons Commission
The Son
I pay for her life, my brothers and I. All of it, for years. And I want to stop paying for it.
Ida Armstrong is broke, lonely, and fading fast. And she’s spending all of her children’s money, forcing her son to assume the unwanted role of The Treasurer: an arrangement that becomes untenable the more he questions his devotion to her. In this darkly funny, sharply intimate portrait, Max Posner chronicles the strained ties between a son and his aging mother, and the hell of a guilty conscience.
Playwrights Horizons commission with funds provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Leading National Theatres Program.
The Treasurer is the recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award
“CRITIC'S PICK! Max Posner has a sharp and original ear. Impeccably directed by David Cromer. Adroitly balances the everyday and the extreme.”
— Ben Brantley, The New York Times | Read Full Article“CRITIC'S PICK! ★★★★ Searching, subtle, emotional and personal.”
— Adam Feldman, Time Out New York
“A marvel and invaluable new play. Deanna Dunagan’s adjective-defying performance made my chest hurt. ”
— Sara Holdren, New York Magazine | Read Full Article“Posner’s revelations, touching on the linguistic, the sociological, and the theological, waver between the explicit and the mysterious, and gives us something funny and scary to ponder. ”
— The New Yorker