About the Play:

Belleville has become a favourite of acting teachers for Female Monologues, Male Monologues, and Female/Male Scenes.

Belleville is a full-length drama by Amy Herzog. A newly married American couple are living in Paris. But when a series of small, unexpected encounters escalates the tension between them, some surprising cracks in the foundation of their isolated yet idyllic life begin to show. Belleville is a taut, edgy psychological thriller that asks: does anyone really know who they're with?

Belleville is an unsettling domestic thriller about newlyweds living in Paris. Young Americans Zack and Abby have the perfect ex-pat life in Paris: a funky bohemian apartment in the colourful, multi-ethnic neighborhood of Belleville; a stable marriage; and Zack's prestigious post with Doctors Without Borders. Abby, meanwhile, once an actor, has been leaving home to teach yoga classes. But when she finds Zack at home one afternoon when he's supposed to be at work, the questions and answers that follow shake the foundation of their seemingly beautiful life. Belleville is a chilling, Hitchcockian, look at the limits of trust, truth, deception and dependency in a world where both love and loss can be pathological and cathartic.

Belleville premiered in 2011 at Yale Repertory Theatre, the internationally celebrated professional theatre in residence at Yale School of Drama in New Haven, Connecticut. Since then the play has been successfully staged at several professional theatres across North America. The play has become a favourite scene study vehicle in acting classes and workshops and has been mounted by regional and college theatres.

Cast: 2 female, 2 male

What people say:

"Ms. Herzog's thrillingly good play, confirms her reputation as one of the brightest new talents in the theater. It is rare for a young playwright to be in such confident command of all the theater's resources as Ms. Herzog is here […] among the most suspenseful plays I've seen in years." — New York Times

"Belleville is engrossing. Herzog does a great job of capturing the stereotypical arrogance of Americans living in a foreign country […] But that's just one element of the increasingly complex and relentlessly surprising characters that Herzog has created." — Hartford Arts Examiner

"Belleville is much more dramatic, or rather melodramatic, than a simple unraveling of a relationship. Herzog wants to show you the hopelessness and rage that can spiral out of the stresses of everyday living, but she really cares about raising the entertainment value of the experience. Belleville is funny. It's suspenseful. It's mock-shocking, then genuinely horrifying." — New Haven Theatre Jerk

"Captivating. Herzog's deepest, most mature writing to date. How many playwrights display this kind of economy and strength?" — Entertainment Weekly

"Beautifully conceived. Herzog sets up intimate and touching scenes, in which wordless moments reveal seismic epiphanies." — Associated Press

About the Playwright:

Amy Herzog is an American playwright. One of the fastest rising stars in the American theatre, her streak of success since emerging on the theatre scene from the Yale School of Drama is unparalleled. She is a recipient of the Whiting Writers' Award, the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Helen Merrill Award, the Joan and Joseph F. Cullman Award for Extraordinary Creativity and the New York Times Outstanding Playwright Award.