Wallace Shawn and his partner Deborah Eisenberg stepped in to his Off-Broadway play Wednesday night to replace two cast members who were ill.
Shawn and Eisenberg appeared, with scripts, in What We Did Before Our Moth Days at the Greenwich House Theater, opposite cast members John Early and Josh Hamilton. Shawn and Eisenberg were replacing actors Hope Davis and Maria Dizzia for the night, and will appear again Thursday night, while the actors are still out of the show.
Shawn, who penned the play, and Eisenberg had three hours notice before going on stage, according to the production.
André Gregory, a longtime collaborator with Shawn and his co-star in the film My Dinner with André, directs. Scott Rudin and Barry Diller are producing.
This is the world premiere production of What We Did Before Our Moth Days, in which the four actors, a father, mother, son, and the long-time mistress of the father, tell interlinked monologues about their lives, how each have intersected with love, including the remorse, sadness and joy it can bring.
The play is performed in repertory with a revival of The Fever, a solo play also written and performed by Shawn, in which he falls ill inside a hotel room and grapples with the political repression going on in the world outside. He performs in that show twice a week, on Sunday and Monday evenings.
While known for his onscreen roles, including Vizzini in The Princess Bride, Wallace is also a prolific playwright, with plays including Aunt Dan and Lemon, The Designated Mourner and Grasses of a Thousand Colors, in addition to his other collaborations with Gregory.
The play is set to run through May 24, after opening at the theater on March 5.
