David Mamet's 'Boston Marriage' Turns a Studio City House Into a Victorian Drawing Room
By Giovanna Salas
For a few more weeks, a private house in Studio City becomes a late Victorian drawing room. Creative Coven LLC presents Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet's Boston Marriage, a sharp drawing-room comedy staged inside European House LA, with performances through October 24 and no more than 30 seats per show.
The play follows Anna and Claire, two women in a "Boston marriage," a 19th-century term for educated women who chose lifelong companionship and lived independently of a man's financial support. Anna, prone to poetic fits of passion, has become the mistress of a wealthy man and hopes his money will persuade Claire to move in with her. Claire, meanwhile, has fallen for a much younger woman and wants a jealous Anna's help arranging a rendezvous.
Mamet, Writing for Women
Mamet released the play in 1999. As theater legend tells it, he wrote it to prove that he could write for women and write heightened language. It remains one of the few plays by a male playwright whose characters are exclusively lesbian, and it carries his trademark blunt dialogue and scheming characters into an unusual setting: the Victorian female intellectual set.
Two Actresses, Two Roles, One Coin
Nicole Pacent (Criminal Minds: Evolution, and Mystique in Insomniac Games' Wolverine) and Heather Renee Wake (American Housewife, Nashville) switch the lead roles each night. On Saturdays, a "Coin Toss Night" lets an audience member literally toss a coin to decide who plays whom. Dulce Valencia plays the Maid, and the production is directed by Bernardo Cubría, whose play Crabs in a Bucket won the 2024 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Writing.
“We can think of very few queer period comedies in existence, and to have one that is this well-written and this funny presents a once-in-a-lifetime experience for both us as actors, and you as audience members,” say Pacent and Wake. “It’s a night of gay in all the right ways.”
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A House as the Stage
European House LA is a privately owned home in Studio City where every room is decorated in a blend of Baroque opulence, Rococo artistry and Old Hollywood sophistication. Production designer Katarina Van Derham, the house's owner, and stage manager Casey Collaso complete the creative team, and audiences sit close enough to feel they have stepped into the world of the play.
Event Details
When: Through October 24, 2026. Fridays (October 9, 16 and 23) and Saturdays (October 10, 17 and 24) at 8 p.m.; Sundays (October 11 and 18) at 2 p.m.; and Thursday, October 22, at 8 p.m.
Where: European House LA, 12355 Rye Street, Studio City, CA 91604. Street parking is available; ridesharing is encouraged.
Tickets: $50 at https://www.ticketsource.com/boston-marriage
Instagram: @boston_marriage_
Sources
Boston Marriage tickets and information: https://www.ticketsource.com/boston-marriage
Press release from Creative Coven LLC via Susan Gordon Public Relations.
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