The Moors at Yale Rep

World Premiere of Jen Silverman’s play THE MOORS at Yale Rep. Directed by Jackson Gay.

“A mastiff and a hen came to me in my sleep the other night, visitors from the play I had just seen in New Haven. I wonder if the writer Jen Silverman has had the same experience, because her inspired new play, “The Moors,” rolls out like the stuff of dreams, with telling passages heightened by surrealistic flights of fancy – including that mastiff and hen in an archetypally pleasing you-really-ought-to-see-this parable.

Jeff Biehl, as the mastiff, captures his character’s sad and lonely life in the stellar subplot: his warm and eventually joyous romance with a moorhen, played by Jessica Love. Her performance is outstanding in heart and birdlike manner. Through their tale, Ms. Silverman indulges in thought that her human characters would not utter. (The mastiff: “But then sometimes I think, who would I be if I weren’t depressed?”)

Mr. Biehl and Ms. Love have a funny and touching chemistry through their disparate characters. In spite of, or because of, the harsh true-to-nature theme (similar to the fable of the scorpion and the frog), their courtship has a memorable beauty.”

David Dewit – The New York Times

Jessica Love and Jeff Biehl in THE MOORS by Jen Silverman, directed by Jackson Gay. Photo © Joan Marcus, 2016.
Jessica Love and Jeff Biehl in THE MOORS by Jen Silverman, directed by Jackson Gay. Photo © Joan Marcus, 2016.

Cast: Jeff Biehl, Hannah Cabell, Birgit Huppuch, Jessica Love, Kelly McAndrew, Miriam Silverman

Creative Team: Alexander Woodward (Scenic Designer), Fabian Fidel Aguilar (Costume Design), Andrew F. Griffin (Lighting Design), Daniel Kluger (Sound Design and Original Music), Rick Sordelet (Fight Director), Maria Ines Marques (Dramaturg), Tara Rubin (Casting), Avery Trunko (Stage Manager)