The Niceties, Starring Lisa Banes and Jordan Boatman, Opens Off-Broadway

Manhattan Theatre Club's New York premiere of Eleanor Burgess's The Niceties opened on Thursday, October 25, at New York City Center's Stage II as part of the Harold and Mimi Steinberg New Play Series.

Directed by Kimberly Senior, The Niceties stars Lisa Banes and Jordan Boatman. The play is set at an elite East Coast university, where an ambitious young black student and her esteemed white professor meet to discuss a paper the college junior is writing about the American Revolution. They're both liberal. They're both women. They're both brilliant. But very quickly, discussions of grammar and Google turn to race and reputation, and before they know it, they're in dangerous territory neither of them had foreseen — and facing stunning implications that can't be undone.

The design team includes Cameron Anderson (scenic design), Kara Harmon (costume design), D.M. Wood (lighting design), and Elisheba Ittoop (original music and sound design).

The Niceties is presented in association with Huntington Theatre Company and McCarter Theatre Center.