Are the two people involved in a marriage ever enough? That is the question Sarah Ruhl’s subversive take on the conventional institution of marriage explores from a thoroughly modern LGBTQ perspective.
With Ruhl’s How to Transcend a Happy Marriage, Iron Crow Theatre, Baltimore’s award-winning professional queer theater, truly went above and beyond the conventional limits of multifaceted relationships to introduce the audience to uncharted territories of love, desire, and polyamory and to introduce this straight reviewer to how throuples roll!
This provocative play begins at a dinner off an exit of the New Jersey expressway hosted by a straight biracial couple who decide to add some flavor to the New Year’s Eve celebration by inviting a younger polyamorous woman and her two live-in boyfriends to the party.
The plot thickens from there as hash brownies and champagne flutes loosen everyone’s inhibitions and the alpha female George takes charge of the festivities, uncouples every player, and turns them into uninhibited court jesters!
Valerie Dowdle as George, short for Georgia, delivers a dom performance that sets the stage on fire with her commanding presence and ties a bow on the second act with a “when I die” soliloquy on watching children grow up and the harmony of an orchestra of players.
Asia-Lige Arnold, an Iron Crow resident artist, is no plain Jane as the party host and wife of her passive husband, Michael, played by Gabe Fremuth, and let’s just say she acts as the social ringleader as she watches things get complicated.
Directed by Ann Turiano, Sarah Ruhl’s ruthless take on How to Transcend a Happy Marriage combines absurd domestic comedy with erotic magical realism.
In a cast that had no weak links, Gabe Fremuth, Frankie Marsh, Sam Fromkin, and Jake Stibbe, another Iron Crow resident artist, make up the mosh pit of hungry young bodies who unravel the blurred lines between strangers, friends, partners, and lovers.
The run through April 27 is short, so do not sleep on this eye-opening, gender-bending statement on modern marriage!
Iron Crow artistic director Sean Elias and managing director Natka Bianchini scaled the ticket prices from $25 to $65 dollars and emphasized at a packed champagne toast on opening night that “when you buy a ticket, you ensure that queer stories continue to be told, queer artists continue to create, and queer communities continue to be seen.”
Running Time: Approximately two hours including a 15-minute intermission.
How to Transcend a Happy Marriage plays through, April 27, 2025, presented by Iron Crow Theatre performing at Baltimore Theatre Project, 45 West Preston Street, Baltimore, MD. Purchase tickets ($25–$65) online.
Visit theatreproject.org for show times and info on the best parking spots in the 25 West Preston neighborhood.
Credits for the cast and creative team are here.
Iron Crow Theatre has partnered with Monarque Restaurant to create “Transcendent Tables” — a special dining experience that complements the dinner party setting of How to Transcend a Happy Marriage. Patrons can enjoy a pre-fixe meal at Monarque before attending the performance, with conversation prompts inspired by the play’s themes. Much like the characters in Sarah Ruhl’s play who find themselves transformed over dinner, audiences can begin their own journey before even entering the theater.