The Duck Variations

By David Mamet

Directed by Betty Diamond

Madison Theatre Guild proudly announces its reprise of David Mamet’s seldom performed comic play, "The Duck Variations", from August 14 to 16 at the Bartell Theatre in downtown Madison, 113 E. Mifflin St. Playing to positive reviews and sellout houses when it was first produced last January, the show will be remounted for four performances only. Directed by Betty Diamond, the show stars veteran Madison actors Cal Bruce and Tom Haig who, a reviewer wrote, play “Laurel and Hardy as senior citizens.”

In the show, two old men sit on a park bench by the Lake in Chicago, and talk about this and that and—ducks. In "The Duck Variations", Mamet uses the musical model of theme and variation to take a theme and then create fourteen short riffs on that theme which, in this case, is ducks. One of Mamet’s earliest plays, it is not what most people think of when they think of a Mamet play. There is no rage, no meanness, lots of gentle humor, and the principal four-letter word is “duck.”

Tom Haig’s participation in the show is of particular note. Haig, now 87 and legally blind, was one of the central figures in the transformation of the Esquire Theater to the Bartell, having done much of the physical labor himself. Cal Bruce is a doctor, with a busy practice, and a theater habit he gets to indulge when he’s not on call.

Produced by Madison Theatre Guild in the Evjue Theatre at the Bartell Theatre, 113 E. Mifflin Street, Madison

Performances: August 14-16, 2008

Performance Times: Thursday and Friday at 8:00, Saturday at 4:00 and 8:00.

Ticket Prices: Tickets: $15. Seating is limited.

Call (608) 238-9322 for reservations or more information.