Off-Broadway News
Wallace Shawn and Deborah Eisenberg to Step Into What We Did Before Our Moth Days Off-Broadway
With only three hours notice, the couple will take to the stage of Shawn's play.
April 01, 2026 By Margaret Hall
Live theatre, there's nothing like it.
With three hours’ notice, Wallace Shawn and Deborah Eisenberg will step into the extended Off-Broadway run of Shawn’s play What We Did Before Our Moth Days tonight (April 1) and tomorrow evening only at the Greenwich House Theater.
The couple are stepping in for actors Hope Davis and Maria Dizzia, who are out due to illness. They are expected to return to their roles April 3.
What We Did Before Our Moth Days has twice extended its Off-Broadway run through May 24. The production, which began performances February 4, officially opened March 5.
READ: Can Theatre Change People's Minds? To Wallace Shawn, That's Not Inconceivable
Photos: What We Did Before Our Moth Days Off-Broadway
Hope Davis in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
Josh Hamilton and Maria Dizzia in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
Hope Davis and John Early in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Luis Manuel Diaz
Hope Davis, Josh Hamilton, Maria Dizzia, and John Early in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
Hope Davis, Josh Hamilton, Maria Dizzia, and John Early in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
Hope Davis, Josh Hamilton, Maria Dizzia, and John Early in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
Hope Davis, Maria Dizzia, and Josh Hamilton in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
Hope Davis, Maria Dizzia, and Josh Hamilton What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
John Early and Hope Davis in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
Maria Dizzia in What We Did Before Our Moth Days
By: Julieta Cervantes
The project reunites Shawn with director and longtime collaborator André Gregory, who is directing the new work. Their artistic partnership dates back to Shawn's Our Late Night, directed at Off-Broadway's Public Theater in 1975. Shawn and Eisenberg have been companions in art and life for nearly fifty years, and she has frequently appeared in his work, including My Dinner with Andre.
What We Did Before Our Moth Days focuses on the many facets of love, with a father, mother, son, and the father's long-time mistress telling the intimate story of their lives. The usual cast features Davis, Dizzia, John Early, and Josh Hamilton.
Concurrently with Moth Days, Shawn has revived his solo show The Fever, performing the work twice weekly on Sunday and Monday evenings at Greenwich House Theater (also until May 24). The Fever, which premiered with Off-Broadway's Public in 1990 and won the 1991 Obie Award for Best Play, sees Shawn becoming a nameless narrator in a squalid hotel room in a poor nation rife with political repression. As he recovers in solitude, he is forced to confront his own privilege and complicity in the outside world's atrocities.
The projects are under the leadership of co-producers Scott Rudin and Barry Diller. Rudin has been largely absent from the industry since reports emerged of his abusive behavior to subordinates behind the scenes. Though such reports have been published periodically over his career, Rudin stepped away from his professional life following 2021 articles in The Hollywood Reporter and New York Magazine. Published in the wake of the #MeToo movement, both resulted in renewed calls for Rudin to be barred from the industry. Rudin ultimately announced that he would “step back” from Broadway productions and film projects and resign from The Broadway League, installing Kate Horton as executive producer of his then-developing Broadway revival of The Music Man. That revival would open at the Winter Garden Theatre in 2022 starring Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster. What We Did Before Our Moth Days follows Rudin's return to Broadway producing, also with Diller: Little Bear Ridge Road with Laurie Metcalf. The two are also behind the upcoming Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman, set to star Metcalf and Nathan Lane.
Shawn and Gregory's past projects include My Dinner With Andre, Vanya On 42nd Street, Uncle Vanya, and The Designated Mourner. Shawn is also co-producing this Off-Broadway staging.
The production features scenic and costume design by Riccardo Hernández, lighting design by Jennifer Tipton, sound design and original music by Bruce Odland, and projection design by Bill Morrison.
Shows mentioned in this article
What We Did Before Our Moth Days
- Closes May 24, 2026
- Greenwich House Theater
