In the aftermath of a life-altering event, Pre-Existing Condition explores the challenges, shared community and everyday indignities of learning to move forward. The production will star, in the rotating role of “A,” Emmy Award® winner Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black), Tony Award® nominee Maria Dizzia (In the Next Room), Tavi Gevinson (“American Horror Story”), Tony Award ® winner Deirdre O’Connell (Dana H.) and Julia Chan (Uncle Vanya) in select performances. Ms. Maslany will be the first “A,” beginning on June 7.
Maslany’s performance is raw as others claw at her skin throughout the show, her half-formed answers to questions bleeding out of her. When A tells one date her last boyfriend hit her, he sarcastically chides her, “What’d you do?” Lawyers tell her there’s not enough money at stake to take her case, and mutual friends plead that her ex feels really bad about it all. No one spouts cliches like "you should have left him" or "you asked for it," but they don’t have to; she still feels it. Her therapists (Dael Orlandersmith and Sarah Steele, who bounces among characters with dexterity) tell her as much in suffocating group sessions. The sessions are made lighter for the audience when Orlandersmith and Steele respond to invisible participants with emphatic nods and “mmm-hmm”s, but there is no relief for A — only exhaustion.
If you’re familiar with Maslany only from her Emmy-winning multi-character turn in BBC America’s Orphan Black, or on Broadway in Ivo van Hove’s video-powered Network or last season’s eccentric thriller Grey House, it’s a thrill to see her in the intimate black box Connelly Theater Upstairs. Even attendees in the back row will be able to see the tears in her eyes and the clenching of her jaw. She’s an absolute marvel.
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Premiere Off-Broadway |
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