Scott Rudin is producing Wallace Shawn’s new play, What We Did Before Our Moth Days, Off-Broadway this winter.
The play, directed by André Gregory, will star Hope Davis, Maria Dizzia, John Early and Josh Hamilton. It’s set for a 12-week run at the Greenwich House Theater starting Feb. 4., with an opening night March 5.
Rudin is producing the play with Barry Diller and Shawn, who is co-producing. The news follows Rudin’s announced return to theatrical producing, after a Hollywood Reporter investigation in 2021 had detailed multiple allegations of abusive behavior in claims from ex-staffers. Rudin and Diller are also producing Little Bear Ridge Road, starring Laurie Metcalf and Micah Stock, on Broadway this fall.
What We Did Before Our Moth Days “is set in an urban world of intelligent and somewhat gentle middle-class people” and follows a father, mother, son and the long-time mistress of the father, telling the story of their lives.
The play builds on the decades-long collaboration between Shawn and Gregory, who first worked on Shawn’s play Our Late Night in 1975 and then went on to work on the films My Dinner with Andre, Vanya on 42nd Street and a filmed adaptation of Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Rudin produced the New York production of Shawn’s The Designated Mourner in 2000, directed by Gregory.
“We don’t understand ourselves, and we don’t know why we do what we do. Ideally, then, dangerous weapons should be kept out of our hands at all times, but in romantic, sexual, and familial relationships we carry the weapon of our own feelings strapped to our chests whether we like it or not. This is a play about four intelligent and thoughtful people – mother, father, son, and father’s mistress – living in a somewhat violent but sophisticated city,” Shawn said.
Davis is currently starring in the Apple TV+ limited series Before alongside Billy Crystal, and appeared in Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme. She earned a 2022 Emmy Nomination for her work on Succession and received a Tony nomination for her work in God of Carnage on Broadway.
Dizzia most recently appeared in the Off-Broadway play Pre-Existing Condition, which she also directed. She appeared in the Broadway revival of Macbeth, and also starred in the national tour of Heidi Schreck’s What the Constitution Means to Me. She stars in the Paramount series School Spirits and also in Apple TV’s Before.
Early is an actor, comedian, writer, director and producer known for his collaborations with Kate Berlant, including on his A24 sketch special Would It Kill You To Laugh? In addition to frequent stage work, Early starred in the HBO Max Original series Search Party and co-starred in the comedy series The Afterparty with Tiffany Haddish.
Hamilton will next be seen opposite George Clooney and Adam Sandler in Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, and in Mas Bouzidi’s debut Concessions. He recently starred in Tina Satter’s Reality opposite Sydney Sweeney and in Cory Finley’s Landscape with Invisible Hand.