- The New Yorker
- Variety
- Lighting and Sound of America
TALES FROM MY PARENTS DIVORCE
Written By: Anne Kauffman Matthew Maher Caitlin Miller Jennifer R. Morris Janice Paran Robbie Collier Sublett
Additional Contributions By: David Barlow
Crafted from interviews the cast conducted with their own parents, Tales from My Parents’ Divorce is a heartbreaking and hilarious account of the parents’ marriages and their subsequent divorces. These delicate parent-child conversations have yielded unique insights into falling in love, falling out of love, and rebuilding a life after the complex experience of dividing a family.
Written by:
Anne Kauffman
Matthew Maher
Caitlin Miller
Jennifer R. Morris
Janice Paran
Robbie Collier Sublett
Additional Contributions:
David Barlow
Performed By:
Matthew Maher
Caitlin Miller
Jennifer R. Morris
Robbie Collier Sublett
Tales From My Parents’ Divorce received a developmental showing presented by The Civilians at Galapagos Art Space in Brooklyn on November 13, 2009. It was directed by Anne Kauffman with the following cast: Matthew Maher, Caitlin Miller, Jennifer R. Morris, and Robbie Collier Sublett.
The play received its world premiere at Williamstown Theater Festival August 16-21, 2011 and traveled to ArtsEmerson October 25-30, 2011 with the same cast and Anne Kauffman directing.
The play had its New York premiere at The Flea Theater from April 7 through May 6, 2012. It included a post-show Salon Night Series, for which artists created original performances from audience and online responses. Artists included:
4/14: You Better Sit Down Cast Talk-Back
4/18: The Flea’s Resident Company, The Bats
4/21: You Better Sit Down Cast
4/25: Jason Grote (R&D Group writer and staff writer for Smash) and Marisa Michelson
and Michael Schulman (writer for The New Yorker)
4/28: The Bats
5/3: Music Night, featuring Kamara Thomas, Sam Bisbee, and Matt Berger
5/5: The Civilians’ Associate Artists
The Village Voice“wryly entertaining & absorbingly candid”
Variety “riveting confessional theater”
Time Out New York “Critic’s Pick… Four Stars”
Backstage “Critic’s Pick… uncompromising and funny”
New York Post “…the actors expertly mine the material for all its pathos and humor.”
Stage and Cinema “funny, poignant, sharp, melancholy, and always, unblinkingly alert”
The New York Times “the truth about these four defunct marriages is laid bare with a simplicity and honesty that makes you reflect on how infrequently many adult children dare to probe into the most momentous passages in their parents’ lives.”
Theatremania “engaging and humorous”
Theatre is Easy “[the actors] are all a joy to watch, and that’s something their parents can surely be proud of. ”
Lighting and Sound America “The Civilians have provided us with a series of alarming and funny characters. See it with someone you love.”
Check out our Divorce podcast episodes that feature content from our post-show series at The Flea Theater:Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3. And we hope you’ll subscribe for free on iTunes here!
Click HERE for blog posts about the project.
Find out more about the process of creating the show in this video with Jenny Morris and Matt Maher!
Click HERE for the program notes from Williamstown about the topic of divorce and the show!
