''Sight Unseen'' is a play by Donald Margulies. The play premiered at South Coast Repertory in 1991, and then was produced

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer th ...

in 1992 and on Broadway in 2004.

Overview

Jonathan Waxman is a

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

Jew who has become a very wealthy, critically acclaimed artist—his art works are bought "sight unseen." Happily married, with a pregnant wife, he travels to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for a retrospective of his work. While there, he impulsively decides to journey to the countryside to visit his former model and lover Patricia in the

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the Nort ...

farmhouse where she lives and works with her

archeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscapes ...

husband Nick, who is English. She had married this slightly older man in order to remain in England when her student visa expired. Jonathan, whose father has recently died, is struggling with self-doubt and seeking to regain his artistic inspiration. While in England, he meets Grete, a young German scholar-journalist. The play unfolds in a non-linear progression, with forward and backward jumps in time that eventually lead to the beginning of the relationship between Patricia and Jonathan, which ended without satisfactory closure.

Productions

The play was commissioned and first staged by South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California in September 1991. Directed by Micheal Bloom, the cast included Stephen Rowe (Jonathan Waxman), Randy Oglesby (Nick), Elizabeth Norment (Patricia) and Sabina Weber (Grete).Margulies, Donald. "Script", ''Sight Unseen'', Dramatists Play Service, Inc., 1992, , p. 5 The

production by the Manhattan Theatre Club opened on January 7, 1992 at the company's Stage II, where it ran for 103 performances. It transferred to the Orpheum Theatre, running for an additional 190 performances. Michael Bloom directed a cast that included Dennis Boutsikaris as Jonathan, Deborah Hedwall as Patricia, and Jon De Vries as Nick.

Laura Linney Laura Leggett Linney (born February 5, 1964) is an American actress. Having studied acting at Juilliard School (1986-1990), she became known for her complex and multilayered performances on stage and screen. She has received various accolades, ...

appeared in the small supporting role of Grete, a young German journalist.

Lou Liberatore Lou Liberatore (born 1959) is an American actor. A graduate of Fordham University, Liberatore made his New York City stage debut in the 1982 Circle Repertory Company production of ''Richard II''. As a permanent member of the company he appeared ...

replaced Boutsikaris and Margaret Colin replaced Hedwall later in the run."'Sight Unseen' 1992"
lortel.org Margulies won the 1991-92 Obie Award for Best New American Play, and Boutsikaris and Headwall received the 1991-1992 Obie Award, Performance. Linney won the

Theatre World Award The Theatre World Award is an American honor presented annually to actors and actresses in recognition of an outstanding New York City stage debut performance, either on Broadway or Off-Broadway. It was first awarded for the 1945–1946 theatre s ...

. Margulies was a finalist for the 1992

Pulitzer Prize for Drama The Pulitzer Prize for Drama is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It is one of the original Pulitzers, for the program was inaugurated in 1917 with seven prizes, four of which were ...

, and was nominated for the

Outer Critics Circle Award The Outer Critics Circle Awards are presented annually for theatrical achievements both on Broadway and Off-Broadway. They are presented by the Outer Critics Circle (OCC), the official organization of New York theater writers for out-of-town newsp ...

for Best Off-Broadway Play, and the John Gassner Award, presented to a new American playwright. The play was produced at the

Long Wharf Theatre Long Wharf Theatre is a nonprofit institution in New Haven, Connecticut, a pioneer in the not-for-profit regional theatre movement, the originator of several prominent plays, and a venue where many internationally known actors have appeared. Fou ...

, New Haven, Connecticut, in November 1993, directed by John Tillinger.Rizzo, Frank
"Play Is About Expensive Art Sold `Sight Unseen'"
''Hartford Courant'', November 24, 1993 The play was revived on Broadway in a Manhattan Theatre Club production at the Biltmore Theatre, running from May 25, 2004 to July 25, 2004, for 70 performances. Directed by

Daniel J. Sullivan Daniel John Sullivan (born June 11, 1940) is an American theatre and film director and playwright. Life and career Sullivan was born in Wray, Colorado, the son of Mary Catherine (née Hutton) and John Martin Sullivan. He was raised in San Franc ...

the cast included Ben Shenkman as Jonathan, Laura Linney as Patricia, and Byron Jennings as Nick. Linney was nominated for the 2004 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play.

Ben Brantley Benjamin D. Brantley (born October 26, 1954) is an American theater critic, journalist, editor, publisher and writer. He served as the chief theater critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1996 to 2017, and as co-chief theater critic from 2017 to ...

of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' wrote:

Mr. Margulies, the author of ''The Loman Family Picnic'' and ''Dinner With Friends'', has never been merely a satirist. His plays are usually about how time and memory transform feelings, relationships and the perception of the past. In scrambling chronology to consider the life and losses of Jonathan Waxman, ''Sight Unseen'' becomes a commentary on the sacrifices entailed in getting older and getting ahead.Brantley, Ben
"Theater Review. A Fragile Victim of Love Long Past"
''The New York Times'', May 26, 2004, retrieved February 8, 2017

References

External links

* * {{IOBDB title 1992 plays Plays by Donald Margulies Off-Broadway plays Broadway plays Plays set in England Jews and Judaism in fiction