Theresa Rebeck's POOR BEHAVIOR Opens Tonight at Primary Stages

Primary Stages in association with Jamie deRoy and Barry Feirstein, present the New York premiere of Poor Behavior, a new comedy by Theresa Rebeck (Seminar, Mauritius, The Understudy, creator of NBC's "Smash"). Poor Behavior plays a limited engagement through September 7 at Primary Stages at The Duke on 42nd Street - a NEW 42ND STREET project (229 West 42nd Street). Opening night is tonight, August 17 at 7PM.

Evan Cabnet (The Model Apartment, A Kid Like Jake) will direct the company featuring Heidi Armbruster (Disgraced, My Man is a Loser), Brian Avers (The Explorers Club, The Lieutenant of Inishmore), Jeff Biehl (Machinal, Master Builder), and Katie Kreisler (Nikolai and the Others, The House of Blue Leaves). With Poor Behavior, Rebeck presents a devilish argument about infidelity and America in this new comedy about two couples spending a not-so-idyllic weekend in the country.

Playwright Theresa Rebeck points to the central question that intrigued her, in the writing: What if you made a mistake, years ago, that has destroyed your life, and will continue to destroy your life? Don't you owe it to some higher notion of 'goodness' to fight for your life? "I've gotten a bit antinomian lately," she admits. "I see the rules of behavior in our world as so confusing anymore, who can make head or tail of them? So what responsibility do people have to each other? Is the idea of pursuing what you want, regardless of the cost to others, a healthy or destructive way to live? Or does it need to be judged another way?" Her darkly comedic vision remains compassionate. "I love these people," she admits. "I think they're funny and passionate. I want their lives to be vital."

"For me, what makes the play so immediate and "of the moment' is the search for a moral compass, for some common ground on which to agree on how to behave," says director Evan Cabnet. "If we as a society no longer agree to some sort of baseline moral or ethic code, then how do we know what is right and wrong, good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate? Everyone is left to their own devices, with damaging results."

Poor Behavior features a scenic design by Lauren Helpern, costume design by Jessica Pabst, lighting design by Jason Lyons, sound design by Jill BC Du Boff, and casting by Stephanie Klapper Casting. Poor Behavior runs July 29 - September 7. Opening night is tonight, August 17 at 7PM.

Photo by James Leynse.