Tony Winner Reed Birney and Lisa Emery to Star in Postponed Lunar Eclipse Off-Broadway

Tony Award winner Reed Birney and Drama Desk Award nominee Lisa Emery are set to star in the postponed New York premiere of Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Margulies’ Lunar Eclipse. The play, a Second Stage Theater production originally scheduled for 2024—but moved to spring 2025 and replaced by Amy Berryman's Walden—will begin previews on May 14 with an official opening set for June 3 at the Irene Diamond Stage at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Kate Whoriskey will direct.

Birney won the Tony Award for his performance in The Humans and earned a Tony nomination for Casa Valentina. Other stage credits include The Dream of the Burning Boy and I’m Gonna Pray for You So Hard. Since her Broadway debut in Passion (1983), Emery’s stage credits include Drama Desk Award-nominated performances in Marvin’s Room and Abigail’s Party.

Lunar Eclipse is about the fragility of memory and the passage of time. Late on a summer night, in a field on their Kentucky farm, a long-married couple, George (Birney) and Em (Emery), have come to watch a lunar eclipse. As the seven stages of the celestial phenomenon unfold, the two sip bourbon and reflect on land and legacy, children and dogs. But as more and more is revealed, they realize they are as much a mystery to each other as the heavens above.

The production will feature scenic design by Walt Spangler, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Amith Chandrashaker, sound design by Sinan Refik Zafar, video design by S. Katy Tucker and original music by Grace Mclean.