The Pain and the Itch
- Written by Bruce Norris
- Directed by Anna D. Shapiro
ANNA D. SHAPIRO has directed some of the most memorable Steppenwolf productions in recent years, including August: Osage County (for which she received a Tony Award),Three Days of Rain, Drawer Boy, I Never Sang for my Father, Man from Nebraska andThe Pain and the Itch. Outside of Steppenwolf, she has directed at the Atlantic Theatre Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, Huntington Theatre Company and Paper Mill Playhouse, among others. Shapiro is also head of the Graduate Directing Program at Northwestern University. (As of October 2013)
With a young daughter in serious need of attention and a ravenous creature possibly prowling the upstairs bedrooms, what begins as an average Thanksgiving for one privileged family unravels into an exposé of disastrous choices and less-than-altruistic motives. THE PAIN AND THE ITCH is a scathing satire of the politics of class and race, a controversial, painfully human examination of denial and its consequences.
Featuring
Mia Barron
Aya Cash
Peter Jay Fernandez
Ada-Marie L. Gutierrez
Jayne Houdyshell
Vivien Kells
Reg Rogers
Christopher Evan Welch
Playwrights Horizons (where she got her Equity card!): The Pain and the Itch, Three Changes. Other Off-Broadway: Killers and Other Family (Rattlestick); Offices, Happy Hour (Atlantic); From Up Here (MTC); The Other Place (MCC); Playlist, Missed Connections (Ars Nova). Film: The Wolf of Wall Street, Sleepwalk With Me, The Oranges, Off Jackson Avenue. TV: “You’re the Worst” (Critic’s Choice, TCA nominations, Comedy Lead Actress), “Easy,” “Traffic Light,” “The Newsroom,” “Modern Family,” “The Good Wife.” Upcoming: Mary Goes Round, F*cking People, Village People, producing/starring in Little Beauties based on her mother’s first novel. @maybeayacash
(as of 2/1/17)
Creative Team
Dan Ostling
Scenic DesignerJennifer von Mayrhauser
Costume DesignerDonald Holder
Lighting DesignerRob Milburn & Michael Bodeen
Sound DesignerSusie Cordon
Production Stage Manager
Photos of (1) Ada-Marie L. Gutierrez, Christopher Evan Welch, Mia Barron, and Jayne Houdyshell; (2) Aya Cash and Reg Rogers; (3) Ada-Marie L. Gutierrez and Jayne Houdyshell; and (4) Peter Jay Fernandez, Christopher Evan Welch, and Mia Barron by Joan Marcus.
The best new play in many a season. There are heady, farcical peaks to this comedy that approach the manic genius of Preston Sturges. But Mr. Norris' real target is that great sentimental sham, the idealized American family.
One of the most satisfying theatrical events available today…Norris writes with a mind that is attuned to the blindness that passes for a shared vision among the emotionally smug and upwardly mobile.
Bruce Norris's The Pain and the Itch is one of the most satisfying theatrical events available today. See it!
WICKEDLY FUNNY. If you enjoy the bitterly articulate comedies of Edward Albee or the political provocations of Wallace Shawn, THIS PLAY IS NOT TO BE MISSED!
HILARIOUS AND VICIOUS. This impeccable production, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, is a high-wire act of surprise, nuance and timing. EIGHT VIRTUOSO ACTORS pass and duck one another with the cumulative force of farce and catastrophe.