The Country House
by Donald Margulies

Name: The Country House
Brand: Donald Margulies
SKU: 9780822232742
Rating: 3.65 (72 reviews)

Broadway

The Country House Book Cover — The Country House Cover

Highlights

Small Cast

Female

Male

120 minsPresent DayRole(s) for Senior Actor(s)Unit Set/Multiple SettingsContemporary Costumes/Street ClothesAmerican Comedy

Why we like it

"'The Country House' reflects on the complexities of family relationships and the interplay of art and life within the context of a summer gathering."

From: Pulitzer Prize-Winning Plays

Awards & Recognition

Drama Desk AwardTony Award

Nominee: Two 2015 Tony Awards, including Best Play Nominee: Two 2015 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Play

What readers are saying

Readers have a mixed response to this play, with many appreciating its character development and homage to Chekhov. However, a few believe it lacks depth and relevance. Overall, those who enjoy Chekhov's style seem to resonate positively with Margulies' work, while some critics find it falls flat.

Well defined charactersIntriguing story linesGreat homage to ChekhovSome find it poorly writtenConsidered irrelevant by a few

Synopsis

One of the most disciplined and satisfying new American plays to reach Broadway in the past decade.

A truly affecting play.”

Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

Like Chekhov, Mr. Margulies is a specialist in rueful regrets and misty glimpses of roads not taken.”

Ben Brantley, New York Times

With a knack for precision in depicting emotional and intellectual ambiguities, Margulies leaves his audiences feeling ripe with wisdom.

His untethered finales beg for the audience to cathartically suffer and soar with his intelligently alive characters.

Rather than leaving us longing for the past as in Chekhov, or looking to the potential of the future, as in Ibsen, Margulies keeps us longing for connection to the present moment.”

Kate Bergstrom, Santa Barbara Independent

Anna Patterson, the matriarch of a brood of famous and longing-to-be-famous creative artists, has gathered her family at their Berkshires summerhouse during the Williamstown Theatre Festival on the anniversary of her beloved daughter’s death.

But as restless egos and simmering jealousies derail the weekend, this family of performers must come to terms with the roles they play in each other’s lives.

Donald Margulies received the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Dinner with Friends

The play received numerous awards, including the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the Dramatists Guild/Hull-Warriner Award, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk nomination, and has been produced all over the United States and around the world.

In addition to his adaptation of God of Vengeance

, his many plays include Collected Stories

, The Country House, Sight Unseen

, The Model Apartment

, The Loman Family Picnic

, What’s Wrong with This Picture?

and Time Stands Still

Mr. Margulies currently lives with his wife and their son in New Haven, Connecticut, where he teaches playwriting at Yale University.

ThemesFamilies Families--Drama DRA001000 FIC045000 FAM030000 FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Marriage PS3563.A653 C68 2015

Press Reviews

"Remarkably candid and funny.” – Variety “The Country House is one of the most satisfying new American plays to reach Broadway in the past decade… a truly affecting play.” – Wall Street Journal “This is a play that sneaks up on you, its satire and surprises well concealed and explosively timed."
— Cultural Weekly

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Walter Keegan Sixty-six, a successful film and stage director, Susie’s father.	male	—	Sixty-six, a successful film and stage director, Susie’s father.
Anna Patterson The matriarch, a great and famous actress, Susie’s grandmother.	female	—	The matriarch, a great and famous actress, Susie’s grandmother.
Elliot Cooper Forty-four, a failed actor and aspiring playwright, Susie’s uncle on her mother’s side.	female	—	Forty-four, a failed actor and aspiring playwright, Susie’s uncle on her mother’s side.
Michael Astor Forty-five, a ruggedly handsome and charismatic actor, a longtime family friend.	—	—	Forty-five, a ruggedly handsome and charismatic actor, a longtime family friend.
Nell Mcnally Early forties, an intelligent and inscrutable beauty, Walter’s new actress-girlfriend.	female	—	Early forties, an intelligent and inscrutable beauty, Walter’s new actress-girlfriend.
Susie Keegan Twenty-one, a college student, plainly lovely. Her mother, Kathy, is recently deceased.	female	—	Twenty-one, a college student, plainly lovely. Her mother, Kathy, is recently deceased.