The Passing of Bette and Boo

April 3, 2024 5:30 PM

Christopher Durang, TONY award-winning playwright, has died at the age of 75.

Born in Pennsylvania and educated in Catholic schools, it is not surprising that the absurdist Durang's first noted work was the satire Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All For You. Durang won an Obie award for that work and its dark sense of humor, along with the later The Marriage of Bette and Boo,an absurdist piece about a crumbling marriage, and Betty's Summer Vacation. His later work Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike won a TONY award; despite borrowing characters heavily from both The Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard, Durang insisted his work was not a parody - but rather, that "I [took] Chekov's scenes and characters and put them in a blender."

Durang's work frequently touched on Catholic themes, but his 2005 Miss Witherspoon was a rare foray into exploring the theme of reincarnation and Eastern philosophy. It was nominated for a Pulitzer. His play Beyond Therapy - about a couple falling in love while simultaneously each struggling with their inept therapists - was made into a 1987 film with Jeff Goldblum and Julie Haggerty (although Durang really didn't care for it).

While best known as a playwright, Durang occasionally acted as well, with modest roles in The Secret of My Success, Mr. North, Penn & Teller Get Killed, In the Spirit, HouseSitterand The Cowboy Way. He also has the unique distinction of being the very first person interviewed on the very first "Church Chat" sketch on Saturday Night Live, thanks to that episode's host Sigourney Weaver (a college friend and longtime collaborator). He might also have met his match in Robin Williams, in this sketch he wrote for a Carol Burnett variety show.

Cruelly for a wordsmith, Durang suffered from Logopenic progressive aphasia in his later years. He is survived by his husband John Augustine.

posted by EmpressCallipygos (20 comments total)

I only know Durang from one thing, and that's that SNL appearance; it's the first show with the Dana Carvey/Phil Hartman cast, and Durang and Weaver did a sort of satirical Berthold Brecht musical medley. A bit different for SNL, but the (mostly) new cast was obviously sharp and overall they hit it out of the park.

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posted by Halloween Jack at 5:52 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]

The first play I saw when I moved to New York City from Ohio in 1980 was Sister Mary Ignatius. As a failed and guilt-ridden product of a Catholic School education, I felt it was written specifically for me.
posted by How the runs scored at 5:59 PM on April 3 [2 favorites]

I actually found out about his passing thanks to a friend who was a volunteer reader for my playwriting contest a couple times; he posted to Facebook and tagged me, as he remembered me kvetching about playwrights who would channel Durang's absurdity without having any of his heart. Because yeah - I can't begin to tell you how many plays we got which were wildly disparate topics, and yet all had this same sort of Edward-Gorey-on-mescaline tone to them and it took me years to realize "oh shit they're trying to be Christopher Durang".

But like my friend remembers me saying - the world already had a Christopher Durang. But now it doesn't.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:11 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]

I was lucky enough to have performed as Amanda Wingfield three times, twice in straight productions of 'The Glass Menagerie' and once in 'For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls', the last one a delightful one acter written by Durang. "Don't say the word pimple, honey, it's common". RIP.
posted by h00py at 6:55 PM on April 3 [1 favorite]

Oh wow, in my high school drama club I directed a little collection of Durang shorts we ended up calling Durang the Bathtub, I'm Drowning.

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posted by drumcorpse at 7:00 PM on April 3 [3 favorites]

Spoiler Alert.

When I was at Hampshire College, I appeared in Mary Ignatius as the student who is a plant in the audience, and goes through her purse at the end of the play.

Unnecessary story: My friend, who was also the director, insisted I already be in character before the show started. This was detrimental, because at one performance, some friends called my name but I was forced to ignore them as the character. I always thought I should have just been me until the play officially started.

Thanks, Metafilter, for letting me get this off my chest after 40 years.
posted by wittgenstein at 7:06 PM on April 3 [6 favorites]

I only know Durang from one thing, and that's that SNL appearance; it's the first show with the Dana Carvey/Phil Hartman cast, and Durang and Weaver did a sort of satirical Berthold Brecht musical medley.

I see the FPP already mentioned Christopher Durang had the honor of being the first "guest" ever interviewed by the Church Lady. You get to hear the Church Lady call Mary Ignatius "your dirty little sex play" to Christopher Durang's face.

BTW, Durang's The Idiots Karamozov is one of the funniest plays I've ever seen performed live.

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posted by jonp72 at 8:23 PM on April 3

Damn, he was a legend.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:53 PM on April 3

Huh, i played Boo back in the day. Don't vacuum the gravy.
posted by Sebmojo at 10:03 PM on April 3

One of the first plays I ever acted in was "'Dentity Crisis" by Durang. Over my years in theatre, I have probably seen a dozen of his plays live as well as about a hundred scenes from his plays in my acting and theatre classes. That kind of lasting appeal speaks to his remarkable ability to bring absurd worlds to believable life. His plays often read like real life but with all the context removed. We can thus experience the characters desperately attemp to form relationships despite a pronounced inability to successfully communicate. In that way, Durang captured something universal about being human and allowed the audience to go through the stark horror of existence along with the characters, laughing most of the while.

75 years is far too short a time for us to have had such a delightful artist among us. Rest in peace, Mr. Durang, and thank you for everything you gave us.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:08 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]

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posted by kyrademon at 4:37 AM on April 4

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 4:59 AM on April 4

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I was also highly exposed to his work as a theater student in high school. I hope that doesn't make it sound dated -- it should be a part of the curriculum. It made drama live, made it real and personal, instead of just a stepping stone to dreams of Broadway and Hollywood.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:19 AM on April 4 [2 favorites]

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posted by dlugoczaj at 7:05 AM on April 4

aw man sad about this one

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posted by taquito sunrise at 7:16 AM on April 4

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posted by brujita at 3:45 PM on April 4

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His stuff was a favorite in my high school drama club. We took his (and Wendy Wasserstein's) "Medea" to the state thespian conference, where we didn't win but had way too much fun to care. We were doing bits from "For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls" for warm-ups around the same time my mom happened to be doing "The Glass Menagerie" in a community theater production and I still get parts from Durang's version mixed up with the real one.

RIP to a real one.
posted by wakannai at 4:07 PM on April 4 [2 favorites]

I used to have quite the collection of Infants of Prague -- and even visited the original -- inspired by Laughing Wild. I think it was that same play that had God (or was it the Infant?) talking about how he hated homosexuals and hemophiliacs and Haitians and other things that began with "h."
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:56 PM on April 4 [1 favorite]

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posted by shiny blue object at 7:21 PM on April 4

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posted by fairlynearlyready at 10:55 PM on April 4