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"BLISTERINGLY SMART! Absorbing and revealing!" — The Boston Globe
"A MUST-SEE! Passionate and brilliantly written." — Jared Bowen, WGBH
"I WAS DAZZLED! A taut, two-hander that cracks open an overdue debate about who gets to write history." — Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce's Choices
"SMASHING! Extraordinary! A mind-expanding verbal roller coaster." — South Shore Critic
"A BARNBURNER of a play! Destined to be performed everywhere. One of the best plays I've seen about who gets to tell the story of America, and how." — The Washington Post
Seating at select performances of The Niceties is limited, but seats are released every day for sale. Please call Ticketing Services at 617 266 0800 to learn about our Advanced Wait List and be upgraded to a seat automatically when it becomes available.

In this explosive story, a black student and a white professor – both brilliant, both liberal – meet to discuss a paper about slavery's role in the American Revolution. A polite conversation becomes a powder keg of race, history, and power, and neither woman will ever be the same. An entertaining and provocative nail-biter, written by Boston native Eleanor Burgess and directed by Broadway veteran Kimberly Senior (Disgraced), that everyone will be talking about.

Produced in association with Manhattan Theatre Club and McCarter Theatre Center

Approximate run time: The Niceties plays in approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes, including one 10-minute intermission.



Eleanor Burgess“I'm thrilled to be working at the Huntington – the place where I saw my first plays as a teenager, and the place that gave me my start as a professional playwright through the Huntington Playwriting Fellows program. And I'm extra thrilled to bring this particular play to Boston. A story about academic power and liberal dogmas, about frighteningly smart people and the stories we tell ourselves about history – it's made for this city.” — Eleanor Burgess

Video

Jump to: Photos

  • The Niceties Welcome Video

    Playwright Eleanor Burgess invites you to come see her explosive new play, The Niceties.

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  • The Niceties Behind the Scenes

    Go behind the scenes with the cast of The Niceties. This powder keg of a play about race, history & power starts August 31.

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  • The Niceties Audience Reviews

    See what audiences are saying about The Niceties. This powder keg of a play about race, history & power is on stage now thru Oct. 6.

    Watch



  • The Niceties Critics' Spot

    See what critics are saying about The Niceties. This powder keg of a play about race, history & power is on stage now thru Oct. 6.

    Watch



Photos

  • The Niceties Meet & Greet

    Join us in the rehearsal hall for the first day of Eleanor Burgess' hugely entertaining new play, The Niceties.

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    The Niceties Meet & Greet

  • The Niceties Rehearsal Photos

    Join us in rehearsal for Eleanor Burgess' powder keg of a play about race, history & power, The Niceties.

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    Rehearsal Photos

Articles

  • The Niceties Program

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  • Exchanging ideas: An interview with Playwright Eleanor Burgess

    Growing up in Brookline, playwright Eleanor Burgess started seeing plays at the Huntington almost 20 years ago. Before rehearsals, she spoke with Director of New Work Charles Haugland about how her life experience has informed her plays — and vice versa.

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  • Designer Cameron Anderson on Creating a Visual Story

    Designer Cameron Anderson’s work will appear on the Wimberly stage twice this season, both with The Niceties and Melinda Lopez’s Yerma. Last month, Anderson spoke with Director of New Work Charles Haugland about her process and how she brings a play into three dimensions.

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  • Revealing America: Eleanor Burgess' The Niceties

    In playwright Eleanor Burgess’ The Niceties, a student sits down with her professor during office hours; their lives are about to change. Through their intense conversation, Burgess brings intellectual might and refreshing nuance to discussing race, history, and power in America.

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  • An interview with Playwright Eleanor Burgess and Director Kimberly Senior

    IN ELEANOR BURGESS’ THE NICETIES, JANINE, A PROFESSOR OF GLOBAL REVOLUTIONS, MEETS TO DISCUSS A TERM PAPER WITH ZOE, A STUDENT WHO WANTS TO START A REVOLUTION HERE AND NOW. THROUGH THEIR CONVERSATION, BURGESS CREATES AN ELECTRIFYING DEBATE BETWEEN THE TWO WOMEN. PRIOR TO WHEN REHEARSALS BEGAN, BURGESS AND THE NICETIES DIRECTOR KIMBERLY SENIOR SPOKE ABOUT WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE IN THE AUDIENCE FOR THE PLAY AND WHAT CONVERSATIONS THEY HOPE IT SPARKS.

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  • Curtain Calls

    Getting to know The Niceties' two leading ladies: Lisa Banes (Janine) and Jordan Boatman (Zoe).

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Press Reviews

Jump to: Features
"BLISTERINGLY SMART! Absorbing and revealing!" — The Boston Globe
"A MUST-SEE! Passionate and brilliantly written." — Jared Bowen, WGBH
"The dialogue hooked me. I WAS DAZZLED! A taut, two-hander that cracks open an overdue debate about who gets to write history." — Joyce Kulhawik, Joyce's Choices
"SMASHING! Extraordinary! A mind-expanding verbal roller coaster." — South Shore Critic
More Reviews

Features

Brookline playwright Eleanor Burgess' The Niceties peers into an abyss of racial division — The Boston Globe
"SCINTILLATING! Destined to be performed everywhere!" — The Washington Post, July 2017
"A BARNBURNER of a play, which exposes the racial and generational fissures of an Ivy League campus. A white politically liberal professor and a student of color face off over the student’s paper about slavery and the Revolutionary War, in ONE OF THE BEST PLAYS I’VE SEEN about who gets to tell the story of America, and how." — The Washington Post, December 2017

Top 10 of 2017! "A taut, penetrating two-person piece about a student of color at a prestigious university who challenges in blistering fashion the pieties of a white liberal history professor on the subject of slaveholding during the American Revolution. Eleanor Burgess’s piece, exposes the generational and political fissures on the left on the volatile issue of race. And it does so in A NAIL-BITER OF A PLAY that leaves you wrung out and reassessing our own pieties.” 

— The Washington Post, June 2018

Artists

Prices & Seating

Section
Performance Day Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3
PEAK: Friday & Saturday evening;
Sunday matinee 		$99-$109 $69-$79 $25
OFF PEAK: Sunday - Thursday evening;
Saturday matinee 		$79-$109 $49-$79 $25
FIRST LOOK: First Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Tuesday evening; Wednesday matinee $69 $45 $25
PEAK: Friday & Saturday evening;
Sunday matinee
Section
Price
Zone 1
$99-$109
Zone 2
$69-$79
Zone 3
$25
OFF PEAK: Sunday - Thursday evening;
Saturday matinee
Section
Price
Zone 1
$79-$109
Zone 2
$49-$79
Zone 3
$25
FIRST LOOK: First Friday, Saturday, Sunday & Tuesday evening; Wednesday matinee
Section
Price
Zone 1
$69
Zone 2
$45
Zone 3
$25
  Prices
Active Military and Veterans and Immediate Families
 $20 with promo code MILITARY
Student (25 years and younger)
(No AA)		 $20
Section D (Huntington Avenue Theatre);
Last Row (Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA)
Additional discounts may not be applied to section D seats at the Huntington Avenue Theatre and last row seats at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.		 $25
35 Below (35 years and younger)
(No AA or Zone 1)
Learn more about our 35 Below program		 $30

Learn more about our Discount Ticket Programs

  Prices
Active Military and Veterans and Immediate Families
 $20 with promo code MILITARY
Student (25 years and younger)
(No AA)		 $20
Section D (Huntington Avenue Theatre);
Last Row (Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA)
Additional discounts may not be applied to section D seats at the Huntington Avenue Theatre and last row seats at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA.		 $25
35 Below (35 years and younger)
(No AA or Zone 1)
Learn more about our 35 Below program		 $30

Learn more about our Discount Ticket Programs

Seatmap

Avenue of the Arts / Huntington Avenue Theatre: 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston MA 02115
South End / Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA: 527 Tremont Street, Boston MA 02116
Main: 264 Huntington Avenue, Boston MA 02115 | 617 266 7900 |
TICKETING SERVICES 617 266 0800

Best of Boston 2019

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