• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • ABOUT
    • MASTHEAD
    • ADVERTISE
    • Close

Dig Bos

The Dig - Greater Boston's Alternative News Source

TILT SHIFT: ‘A FUTURE PERFECT’ PREMIERES WITH SPEAKEASY

Written by SUSANNA JACKSON Posted January 12, 2015 Filed Under: A+E, Performing Arts

Photo By Craig Bailery / Perspective Photo
Photo By Craig Bailery / Perspective Photo

“If you asked me 10 years ago where I wanted to be …”

 

M. Bevin O’Gara lets the thought hang in the empty rehearsal room, the production of “A Future Perfect” now moved to a stage at Calderwood Pavilion for the show’s world premiere. The director doesn’t clue me in to what a decade-younger version of herself imagined for her life in 2015, but says her priorities have shifted. Now—recently engaged, gainfully employed as an associate producer at Huntington Theater, and fresh off a year that saw her directorial work in Boston on many Best of 2014 lists—O’Gara says, “I’m happy.”

 

It is this line of thought that sits at the crux of “A Future Perfect,” a new play by Ken Urban that the SpeakEasy Stage Company has billed as “A timely new comedy about friendship, babies, and defining success.” In a Brooklyn apartment with a guitar mounted to a red accent wall, chairs adorned with orange accent pillows, and a fat stack of old records, a couple who met in the nineties grapples with what they want out of life, what they need from each other, and how those things have changed since their relationship began. Nearing 40, Claire (Marianna Bassham) has “professionalized” and Max (Brian Hastert) works for pennies on a PBS puppet show. Their respective shifts in priorities since they were in college come into sharp focus when they learn their friends are pregnant—and Claire is openly, albeit unconsciously, hostile about the news.

 

“What I liked about this play was that Claire was unlike other women I’d been reading,” says O’Gara, who has known the playwright for years (but this is their first collaboration). “She was blunt, she said what was on her mind, and it gets her in trouble—that part of her doesn’t change throughout the play. She says blunt things in scene one, she says blunt things in scene nine, but her awareness of that is different. She is actively deciding to be that same person, even though parts of herself have shifted.”

 

“I heard Claire very early on,” says Urban. “What her voice sounded like, what her goals were—and I knew I had to make her fearless.”

 

This fearless-yet-conflicted protagonist is matched by the even-tempered musical Max, and both of them continue to bring their briefcases and baggage home from work each day, building the tension in their chic, contemporary condo. Pregnancy may have been what set off the soul searching, but it’s not the only thing impacting their senses of self. The political and professional pressures keep each person’s character in constant flux, and through it all, “A Future Perfect” asks, can a partnership last?

 

“We often talk about drifting apart,” says O’Gara, “but can we drift together?”

Photo By Craig Bailey / Perspective Photo
Photo By Craig Bailey / Perspective Photo

 

A FUTURE PERFECT. CALDERWOOD PAVILION, 539 HUNTINGTON AVE., BOSTON. ONGOING THROUGH SAT 2.7. FOR SHOWTIMES AND TICKET PRICES, VISIT SPEAKEASYSTAGE.COM

SUSANNA JACKSON
+ posts
    This author does not have any more posts.

Filed Under: A+E, Performing Arts

WHAT’S NEW

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Massachusetts Bill, Victim Advocates Call For Coordinated Date-Rape Drug Response

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

Report: Fewer Youth Transition Out Of Massachusetts Foster Care System

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

State Wire: Activists Urge Congress To Raise Debt Ceiling, Resist Spending Cuts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Dancing On Banana Peels: Life On Lifetime Parole In Massachusetts

Justice Department Completes Vetting Of Rachael Rollins

Justice Department Completes Vetting Of Rachael Rollins

AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”

AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”

Primary Sidebar

LOCAL EVENTS

AAN Wire


Most Popular

  • AG Investigating BPD To Determine If “Gang Unit” Engages In “Unconstitutional Policing”
  • Over Yondr: Are Cell Phone Pouches At Shows Liberating, Dangerous, Or Annoying?
  • Deep Cuts Brings Sandwiches, Craft Beer, And Live Music To Medford
  • Family Of Woman Killed By Commuter Rail Sues MBTA For Crash Records
  • Daring Greatly: TikTok Star Alden McWayne (aka Gucci Pineapple) On Scheming And Dreaming

Footer

Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Advertise

Customer Service

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an email blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: sales@digboston.com To reach editorial (and for inquiries about internship opportunities): editorial@digboston.com