There are no tickets
available for purchase
at this time.
Get Tickets

The Pain and The Itch

Written by Bruce Norris
Directed by M. Bevin O’Gara
March 13 – April 4, 2009
The Plaza Theatre @ The Boston Center for the Arts

Company One is proud to present the Boston premiere of Bruce Norris's controversial play THE PAIN AND THE ITCH, featuring Nancy E. Carroll. 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 compelling, painfully human examination of denial and its consequences. Following sold out runs at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre and New York’s Playwright’s Horizons, Company One is proud to stage this highly anticipated Boston premiere.

A great evening of theatre and I challenge you to keep your jaw from dropping.
- BroadwayWorld.com
Sharp...merrily dark satire.
- The Boston Globe
Darkly funny...wallop of a play...sharp, funny dialogue.
- The Boston Herald
Skillfully crafted and SCATHINGLY FUNNY
- The Phoenix
THE ACTING IS SUPERB.
- The Theatre Mirror

BOSTON CENTER
FOR THE ARTS

Plaza Theatre
539 Tremont Street
South End, Boston, MA

Get Directions

Web:
www.BostonTheatreScene.com

Box Office:
Phone: 617.933.8600

Walk-up:
Calderwood Pavilion at the
Boston Center for the Arts
527 Tremont St.
OR
Boston University Theatre
Box Office
264 Huntington Ave.


Cast




PLAYWRIGHT & PRODUCTION STAFF

  • Bruce Norris
    Playwright
  • M. Bevin O'Gara
    Director
  • Cristina Todesco
    Set Designer
  • James McNamara
    Lighting Designer
  • Angela Jajko
    Costume Designer
  • Aaron Mack
    Sound Designer
  • Basia Goszczynska
    Props Designer
  • Jordan Harrison
    Video Designer
  • Sarah Cohan
    Production Manager
  • Mark Abby VanDerzee
    Technical Director
  • Amanda LaForge
    Assistant Stage Manager
  • Robyn Jones
    Assistant Stage Manager
  • Charles Haugland
    Dramaturg
  • Meghan Dalton
    Assistant Director
  • Stacy Garland
    Assistant Costume Designer

  • Aimee Doherty

  • Cedric Lilly

  • Dennis Trainor, Jr.*
    *Member of Actor's Equity Association

  • Joe Lanza

  • Nancy E. Carroll*
    *Member of Actor's Equity Association

  • Helen Steinman

  • Abigail Steinman

  • Rebecca Skye Hamberg

  • Bruce Norris
    Bruce Norris’ Clybourne Park won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2012, the Olivier and Evening Standard Awards (London) for Best Play, 2011, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, 2011. Other plays include The Infidel (2000), Purple Heart (2002), We All Went Down to Amsterdam (2003), The Pain and the Itch (2004) and The Unmentionables (2006), and A Parallelogram (2010), all of which had their premieres at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago. Two new plays, titled The Low Road and Domesticated, respectively, will premiere in 2013 at the Royal Court Theatre, London and at Lincoln Center Theatre, New York. His work has also been seen at Playwrights Horizons (New York), Lookingglass Theatre (Chicago), Philadelphia Theatre Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre (Washington, D.C.), Staatstheater Mainz (Germany), and the Galway Festival (Ireland), among others. He is the recipient of the Steinberg Playwright Award (2009), and The Whiting Foundation Prize for Drama (2006), as well as two Joseph Jefferson Awards (Chicago) for Best New Work. As an actor he can be seen in the films A Civil Action and The Sixth Sense, and the recent All Good Things. He lives in New York.

Stay tuned for information on special events!

Download Press Release

Reviews

March 29, 2009
Shock theater has lost its value by Louise Kennedy, The Boston Globe

March 27, 2009
Critic's picks by Louise Kennedy, The Boston Globe

March 25, 2009
"The Pain & The Itch" by Larry Stark, The Theatre Mirror

March 24, 2009
Rash relations by Carolyn Clay, The Boston Phoenix

March 23, 2009
The Pain and the Itch by Kay Bourne, EDGE Boston

March 21, 2009
'The Pain' irritates in ways intended and not by Louise Kennedy, The Boston Globe

March 17, 2009
The Pain and The Itch: Virginia Woolf-lite by Nancy Grossman, BroadwayWorld.com

March 16, 2009
'The Pain and the Itch' Satirizes Hypocrisy of White Liberals by Rachel A. Burns, The Harvard Crimson

March 12, 2009
THEATRE GROUP COMPANY ONE'S PLAY LOOKS FOR THE COMEDY IN EVERYDAY TRAGEDIES by Victoria Leenders-Cheng, The Bay State Banner

March 8, 2009
Delving into the dark side by Megan Tench, The Boston Globe

March 16, 2009
'PAIN' SERVES SAVAGE SATIRE AT THANKSGIVING by Jenna Scherer, The Boston Herald