Review: What We Did Before Our Moth Days

Where:

Greenwich House Theater 27 Barrow Street, New York, New York 10014

When: 12 Weeks through April 26, 2026 In Previews, opens March 5th (Now Extended through May 10)

alternating with the one-man play The Fever with Wallace Shawn on Sundays and Mondays through April 26th (Now Extended through May 10)

What We Did Before Our Moth Days is a new play by author Wallace Shawn, directed by his long-time collaborator André Gregory. Riccardo Hernández designed the costumes and set.

Four people, two women and two men, a mother, father, son, and father's mistress, tell us the stories of how they and their relationships developed over time. For most of the play, Elaine, Dick, Elle, and Tim speak directly to the audience, with no stage interaction between themselves, baring their souls as if to a long-time friend one has not been completely truthful with, a therapist, or a father confessor. Their stories are alternately lovely, funny, angry, and repellent, both relatable and difficult to relate to, always honest to the viewer and provoking a response, despite keeping much of their lives hidden from each other.

Greenwich House Theater is an intimate black box theatre with a small balcony and seating for about 100 below. The stage set is sparse, with three arch-topped windows similar to those in the theatre, filled with an ethereal film of ghostly moths flying outside the panes. Four unremarkable grey upholstered chairs and small end tables, such as might be seen in a small doctor's office, line the stage.

The actors, one at a time, some with coffee mugs, take their places on stage. Hope Davis plays Elaine, Dick’s mistress; Maria Dizzia plays Dick’s wife, Elle; John Early plays Elle and Dick’s adult son, Tim; and Josh Hamilton plays Dick, the father. The characters are well-developed and speak of people outside the play in such a way as to bring to life their friends, colleagues, and acquaintances outside the confines of the theater. Each speaker is lit separately while speaking to the audience. Costumes effectively signal the characters’ personalities to the audience.

In the first act, an unexpected death sets the stage for tales of how Dick and Elle met and how their relationship and careers as author and teacher evolved. There is both funny and repellant storytelling by the son, Tim, and an introduction to the mistress, Elaine. Dick explains his concept of death, which gives rise to the play’s title and organizes its structure, and Tim delivers his philosophy of life. The death is covered from each character's point of view.

In the second act, there are more reactions to the death, more development of Elaine's character, and more explanation of the relationship between Elaine and Dick, and how it came about.

The third act leads us out of the play with accounts of what ultimately happened to the characters.

Overall, the play takes the audience on a rollercoaster of emotion and thought, engaging us in the lives of four distinct people who become like friends or people we would never want to know. They are real. The villains are not completely villainous, and the heroes are not always heroic, or perhaps there are no heroes. It is not a morality play. Even when hiding behind well-worn excuses, they tell the truth to us, but not to each other.

Though I can see the reasoning behind separating the final two acts, the third act could possibly be tightened up or combined with the second act in a future production, perhaps by simply shifting the actors' positions on stage.

What We Did Before Our Moth Days will make you think about its complexities, references, and family for a long time. I would go see it again.

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If you go: The play has a run time of 3 hours with two intermissions. The length, lack of stage action, and the topics addressed in the play make it unsuitable for children. No admittance during scenes.

Tickets are available on the official website: mothdays.com