A Family Tempest in a Teacup
GRS alum explores his roots in “The Devil’s Teacup” at BPT
Click on the slide show above to hear Nathan Warren Lane discuss what The Devil’s Teacup means to him, as well as how the play was refined during the workshop process of the Creative Writing Program at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Can you ever go home again? That’s the central question of The Devil’s Teacup, the new play by Nathan Warren Lane (GRS’07) currently playing at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre.
Protagonist Max Fletcher is a struggling musician in New York City. After his father dies, he returns to the small Southern Baptist town where he was raised. There he is faced with a funeral and the sale of the family saloon, the Devil’s Teacup. As Fletcher ponders chasing his dream of becoming a successful musician versus sticking around to run the family business, his brother Oogie and long-lost lover Nicole have opinions of their own.
The play is somewhat autobiographical. Lane grew up in Arkansas, where the Southern Baptist religion is prevalent. “Many of the characters are based on people I know personally,” he says, “or they’re combinations and mutations of people I grew up with.”
The Devil’s Teacup is playing through October 28 at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave., Boston. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 25, 8 p.m. on Friday, October 26, and Saturday, October 27, and a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, October 28. Tickets can be purchased online at id-andrea.cms-devl.bu.edu/bpt/tickets, by phone at 866-811-4111, or one hour prior to each performance at the Boston Playwrights’ Theatre box office.
Robin Berghaus can be reached at berghaus@bu.edu.