September 10-November 8, 2008

Something’s gone awry behind the idyllic façade of Jan and Adam’s Brooklyn brownstone. At 9:10 p.m., they’re reveling in the freedom of having waved off their young son, Greg, to a neighborhood sleepover. By 9:30 p.m., things have gone, well… way past awry. Alternately funny and frightening, Fifty Words is an expansive look at modern marriage, as seen through the looking glass of one couple’s long night’s journey into day.

Academy Award-nominee Michael Weller shot to stardom with his powerful anti-war drama, Moonchildren. Weller’s unique voice, at once moving and revelatory, has garnered acclaim throughout three decades of productions at distinguished theaters such as Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company and New York’s Circle-in-the-Square. Renowned actor and director Austin Pendleton (Orson’s Shadow) will direct Elizabeth Marvel (Top Girls), a true virtuoso of the modern stage, and Tony Award-winner Norbert Leo Butz (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels), in this brutal and insightful new work by one of America’s most perceptive playwrights.