The Catastrophic Theatre presents The Designated Mourner—Wallace Shawn’s fiercely political, deeply personal masterwork concerning class, identity, culture and enemies—at MATCH in Midtown.

A late addition to the 2025-26 season and the company’s third time to present it, the show explores why now is the time to offer this to audiences again.

Greg Dean plays Jack, a self-described “former student of English literature who went downhill from there.” Patricia Duran plays Jack’s refined, stolid ex-wife Judy. Charlie Scott plays Judy’s famous father Howard, an esteemed writer whose early expressions of sympathy for his nation’s poor continue to pose a threat to him and his circle.

Through a series of monologues and short scenes, the three characters walk the audience through a labyrinthine tale spanning the years before, during, and after a populist uprising in an unnamed country, now teetering on the edge of authoritarianism, whose government has targeted the cultural intelligentsia for imprisonment and execution. As the story unwinds, it plumbs the depths of love, contempt, privilege, enemies, beauty, envy, “the self,” and what, if anything, we are willing to sacrifice for the things we believe.

Admission

Tickets are Pay-What-You-Can, with a suggested price of $40. Order tickets or learn more.

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