Boston Marriage

Boston Marriage is set in a late Victorian Boston drawing room, the scene of much backbiting wit from Anna and Claire. Anna is being kept by a married man, but she prefers the company of women. Claire, Anna's lover, has become infatuated with a much younger woman whom she hopes Anna will help her seduce. Anna's lover has given her a fabulous emerald which actually belongs to the mother of Claire's inamorata. Financial and moral scandal ensues, through which Anna forces Claire's loyalty to her. Mamet's play gives us his trademark blunt language and scheming characters, set rather unusually among the Victorian female intellectual set.