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May 2, 2025
EVANSTON, Ill. --- “Fabulation, or the re-education of Undine,” Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage’s dark comedy, will open the winter season at Northwestern University’s Virginia Wadsworth Wirtz Center for the Performing Arts.
Nottage’s acclaimed social satire -- which will be staged on Northwestern’s Evanston campus from Jan. 30 through Feb. 8 -- is a classic comeuppance tale with a devilishly comic twist, described by Variety as “clever and consistently entertaining.”
“Fabulation” tells the story of Undine, a successful public relations executive who rules every aspect of her world in downtown Manhattan until her “perfect” husband suddenly disappears, running off with all of her hard-earned money. Pregnant and on the brink of social and financial ruin, she must return to her childhood home in Brooklyn to cope with her new reality. She also has to try to reconnect to a family she has purposefully forgotten in pursuit of her own ambitious rise to self-perceived glory in the business world.
"The overarching theme of this wonderful play is redemption,” says M.F.A. directing candidate and production director Jerrell L. Henderson. “Even though Undine struggles, she is able to come to terms with her past and begin the journey of becoming a whole person. It's a very powerful, hopeful message, plus the characters are quite intelligent and funny as hell.”
“Fabulation, or the re-education of Undine” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 30; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31; 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 1; 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 6; 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7; and 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 8. All performances will take place at the Josephine Louis Theater, 30 Arts Circle Drive.
Audience talkbacks with members of the Northwestern undergraduate student cast will follow the Jan. 30, Feb. 1 and Feb. 5 performances.
Tickets are $25 for general public; $22 for seniors over 62 and Northwestern faculty and staff and educators; and $10 for full-time students with valid IDs (at the door) or $5 tickets exclusively for full-time Northwestern students on advance purchase. Discounts are available for groups of eight or more.
Playwright Lynn Nottage
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage also is a screenwriter and activist. Her plays have been produced widely in the United States and throughout the world. Nottage is the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius Grant" Fellowship, Steinberg "Mimi" Distinguished Playwright Award, the Dramatists Guild of America Hull-Warriner Award, the inaugural Horton Foote Prize, Helen Hayes Award, the Lee Reynolds Award, and the Jewish World Watch iWitness Award. Nottage’s other honors include the National Black Theatre Fest's August Wilson Playwriting Award, a Guggenheim Grant, PEN/Laura Pels Award, Lucille Lortel Fellowship and Visiting Research Fellowship at Princeton University. She is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama, where she has been a faculty member since 2001. She also teaches graduate playwriting at the Columbia School of the Arts. For more information, visit www.lynnnottage.com/.
For more information about the Wirtz Center winter season production, phone (847) 491-4819, visit www.wirtz.northwestern.edu or email wirtz@northwestern.edu.
