Wallace Shawn's Grasses of a Thousand Colors has extended its American premiere run at the Public Theater. The Andre Gregory-directed show, which opened on October 28, will now run through December 1 rather than the previously announced closing date of November 24.
Starring Shawn, Julie Hagerty, Emily Cass McDonnell, Kristina Mueller and Jennifer Tilly, Grasses of a Thousand Colors touches on almost every imaginable form of sexual expression while spinning a dystopian fantasy about ecological disaster. The play centers on Ben (Shawn), a doctor who figures out how to rejigger the metabolisms of animals to tolerate eating their own kind and ends up ruining the global ecosystem. Grasses also explores the riotous sexual imaginations of Ben, his wife and his lovers.
Grasses of a Thousand Colors was first presented by the English Stage Company at London's Royal Court Theatre in 2009, where it won enthusiastic critical praise. The play is presented as part of the The Wallace Shawn-Andre Gregory Project—a retrospective celebrating a 40-year collaboration—which also included The Designated Mourner.