About the Play:

Baby with the Bathwater has long been a favourite of acting teachers for Female/Female Scenes and Three-Person Scenes.

Baby with the Bathwater is a full-length comedy by Christopher Durang. An eccentric couple are unprepared for the rigours of childrearing. When they bring their newborn baby home, they have no idea what to do when the child cries or even what gender the baby is. An outrageous Nanny and clueless school principal only make things worse. A look at the very wrong side of parenthood, gender and definitely not throwing the baby out with the bathwater! Especially recommended for school and contest use.

Baby with the Bathwater starts with new parents Helen and John gazing proudly at their new offspring, a bit disappointed that it doesn't speak English and too polite to check its sex. So they decide that the child is a girl and name it Daisy – which leads to all manner of future emotional and personality problems when it turns out that Daisy is actually a boy. Thereafter, in a series of brilliantly theatrical and wildly hilarious scenes, the saga of Daisy's struggle to establish his identity continues, despite his parents' growing obliviousness. Luckily, a nanny shows up, but she turns out to be a Mary-Poppins-Gone-Wrong and gives him a lethal toy to play with; then the small problem of Daisy's penchant, as a toddler, for throwing himself in front of buses; then his bizarre problems in school; and, finally, the sessions with his analyst which enable him, at last, to accept his maleness and stop wearing dresses. In the end the play comes full circles as the former Daisy and his young bride fondly regard their own baby – forgiving of the past but determined not to repeat its calamitous mistakes.

Baby with the Bathwater had its world premiere in 1983 at the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was first presented in New York City in 1991 by Playwrights Horizons to widespread critical and popular acceptance in its long run Off Broadway run. The show enjoyed several revivals, has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops, and is regularly performed in regional repertory, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 8 female, 2 male (alternate casting 3 female, 2 male with doubling)

What people say:

"...he knows how to write funny plays, which makes him a rarity. In Baby with the Bathwater, he manages to combine all three modes farce, satire, good-humored wackiness … Durang keeps laughter bubbling ... We laugh and gasp at the same time." — Wall Street Journal

"…a typical example of his dangerous wit and anarchic sense of humor?" — New York Post

"…one of the funniest dramatists alive, and one of the most sharply satiric." — The New Yorker

"Durang's outrageously satiric view of society should never be checked?" — New York Daily News

"…he conquers bitterness and finds a way to turn rage into comedy that is redemptive as well as funny?" — New York Times

About the Playwright:

Christopher Durang (1949-2024) was an award-winning American playwright and actor. One of the most popular playwrights of the 20th century, his plays have been produced on and off-Broadway, in regional theatres around the US and abroad. He received a B.A. in English from Harvard College and an M.F.A. in playwriting from Yale School of Drama. He was the co-chair of the Playwriting Program at the Juilliard School in Manhattan from its inception in 1994 to 2016.