Eclipse Theatre Company has announced its 2019 season will feature the comedic works of playwright Christopher Durang. The season will include three full productions, readings, and public events focused on the playwright and his works.

“ I am pleased and honored that Eclipse Theatre has selected me as their playwright for 2019,” notes Durang. ‘Baby With the Bathwater’ and ‘Beyond Therapy’ are plays that mean a great deal to me, and I’m particularly happy that Eclipse will be producing the Chicago premiere of my political comedy ‘Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them.'”

“I’m particularly thrilled to be collaborating once again with Mr. Durang, who is one of the truly unique voices of the American theater,” comments Interim Artistic Director Steve Scott. “His satires of our culture and mores have never been more relevant, and I’m anxious for our audiences to rediscover his outrageously infectious wisdom and humor.”

The 2019 Christopher Durang Season (from the press release): 

“Baby With The Bathwater”
Directed by Derek Van Barham
April 18 – May 26, 2019

Eclipse opens the 2019 Christopher Durang Season with his bitingly satiric black comedy, Baby With The Bathwater. As the play begins, Helen and John gaze proudly at their new offspring, a bit disappointed that it doesn’t speak English and too polite to check its sex. So they decide that the child is a girl and name it Daisy—which leads to all manner of future emotional and personality problems when it turns out that Daisy is actually a boy. Thereafter, in a series of brilliantly theatrical and wildly hilarious scenes, the saga of Daisy’s struggle to establish his identity continues, despite his parents’ growing obliviousness. At the outset there is a zany nanny who gives him a lethal toy to play with; then the small problem of Daisy’s penchant, as a toddler, for throwing himself in front of buses; then his bizarre problems in school; and, finally, the sessions with his analyst which enable him, at last, to accept his maleness and stop wearing dresses. In the end, the play comes full circles as the former Daisy, and his young bride fondly regard their own baby—forgiving of the past but determined not to repeat its calamitous mistakes.

“Beyond Therapy”
Directed by Rachel Lambert
July 11 – August 18, 2019

Bruce and Prudence are deeply into therapy. Prudence’s macho therapist is urging her to be more assertive while Bruce’s wacky therapist wants him to meet women by placing a personal ad. She does not fully comprehend that Bruce has a male lover who is not pleased by Bruce’s desire to date a woman: Prudence. Bruce doesn’t know how to handle poor nervous Prudence, and Prudence doesn’t know what to make of her unpredictable new boyfriend. They do learn to live beyond therapy in this delightful Off-Broadway and Broadway hit.

“Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them”
Directed by Steve Scott
November 14 – December 15, 2019

“Why Torture Is Wrong and the People Who Love Them,” a play which turns political humor upside down in a raucous and provocative satire about America’s growing homeland “insecurity,” is the story of a young woman suddenly in crisis. Is her new husband, whom she married when drunk, a terrorist? Or just crazy? Or both? Is her father’s hobby of butterfly collecting really a cover for his involvement in a shadow government? Why does her mother enjoy going to the theatre so much? Does she seek mental escape, or is she insane? Honing in on our private terrors both at home and abroad, Durang oddly relieves our fears in this black comedy for an era of yellow, orange and red alerts.

All productions will be presented at the Athenaeum Theatre, 2936 N. Southport Ave., Chicago, IL. For more information visit eclipsetheatre.com.