Brendan Fraser and Brian J. Smith to Star in World Premiere of Samuel D. Hunter’s Grangeville Off-Broadway

Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser will star in the world premiere of Grangeville, reuniting with The Whale writer Samuel D. Hunter. The two-hander, also starring Tony nominee Brian J. Smith, will begin performances at Signature Theatre on February 4, 2025, and run through March 16.

Across a void of thousands of miles and oceans of hurt, two half-brothers tentatively reconnect over the care of their ailing mother. Older sibling Jerry (Fraser) is belligerent as a teenager, sensitive as an adult and still lives in Grangeville, Idaho, while Arnold (Smith) is an artist living in Rotterdam who is drawn back into his past. Their remote connection—over the phone, over video chat, with fragments of their respective contexts audible and visible to one another—collapses their physical distance while underscoring just how many social worlds apart they are. Grangeville explores the fallibility of memory, the stories we tell to make sense of our suffering and the complexity of forgiveness.

Fraser won an Academy Award for his performance in The Whale, a 2022 screen adaptation of Hunter's 2012 play. His other screen credits include Killers of the Flower Moon, The Mummy and George of the Jungle. Smith received a Tony nomination for his performance in the 2013 Broadway revival of The Glass Menagerie, a performance he reprised in the West End, earning an Olivier nomination. His screen credits include Stargate Universe and Sense8.

Grangeville is directed by Jack Serio, who directed the 2023 production of Uncle Vanya in a Flatiron loft.