Hartford Stage’s new play, ‘The Art of Burning,’ speaks to modern-day misogyny and gender roles

The new play “The Art of Burning” has a plot and a lot of action, but according to its playwright Kate Snodgrass, it grew out of a general feeling of distress about the world today rather than a more direct act of storytelling.

“The Art of Burning,” which comes to Hartford Stage March 2-26 after a run earlier this year at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, concerns a marriage that is ending in a drawn-out, contentious divorce.

A painter named Patricia has decided she wants full custody of her teen daughter after suggesting otherwise. The ex-husband, Jason, has ideas of his own. Friends of the couple weigh in, and the daughter is given a voice as well. There are accusations, threats, angry outbursts and suspenseful plot twists. The script weaves in references to modern art and Greek mythology.

The play was conceived in the heat of the moment around a major news event in 2018 when Snodgrass was watching Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings. She channeled her reactions into her writing.

The resulting play is about “the endemic misogyny that exists in our culture,” Snodgrass says. “It’s about violence against women, the way we look we look at women, the way we look at men. Why do these things continue? I don’t think the play can answer that question, but it can add to the discussion.”

Snodgrass is well-versed in the development of new plays, not just with her own work but through her decades-long role as artistic director of Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, from which she stepped down just last year. For years she has also been a playwriting fellow at the Huntington Theatre, which regularly reaches out to its affiliated playwrights to see what they’ve been working on.

During such a call several years ago, “I told them I had 20 minutes of a play,” Snodgrass says. A reading was set up which motivated Snodgrass to finish the work. For the reading, she assigned some actors, including Adrianne Krstansky, who is still playing Patricia in the show, and Melia Bensussen as the director.

The Huntington decided to produce the play then underwent a change in leadership that delayed the project. Meanwhile, Bensussen became the artistic director of Hartford Stage and maintained an interest in the play. There were further workshops and intense rehearsals along the way to the play’s premiere at the Huntington last month.

Snodgrass says she has continued to do rewrites on “The Art of Burning” between its Boston and Hartford runs, largely based on how audiences have reacted and how the actors have grown in the roles.

“Hartford will see a richer play,” she says. “Being at two theaters has done wonders for this play. Every new play should have two major productions.”

She praised Bensussen and the cast for continuing to explore the work.

Since the Huntington has a traditional proscenium stage and Hartford Stage has a floor-level performance area that thrusts right up the edge of its auditorium, the staging and blocking of “The Art of Burning” had to be extensively rethought. Fortunately, Bensussen has great familiarity with both spaces. Snodgrass has been attending rehearsals in Hartford and is helping with the transition. To her, such changes are a natural part of the live theater process.

“There are some things I want to tweak,” she says, “but this is the same cast, and they are such good actors that things can be different every moment.”

Snodgrass has been a professional playwright for decades and has had dozens of her scripts produced. She says “The Art of Burning” is “very different from other work I’ve written.” Everything from how she was inspired to write the play to how she wrote it is a change from her usual writing process. “I didn’t write it in a linear fashion. I wrote the scenes out of order.”

The story “moves around in time and space,” the playwright says. The production enhances these shifts with special effects. There are shifting set pieces. Art by the painter character, Patricia, is shown and discussed. The play has energy and action beyond the probing conversation at its core.

“The Art of Burning” deals with heavy topics, but “on the other hand, it’s very funny,” Snodgrass says.

“There probably will be content warnings [in the playbill], but my hope is that this is a dramatic comedy,” she says. “Marriage can be funny. How we respond to each other is funny.”

“The Art of Burning” runs March 2-26 at Hartford Stage, 50 Church St., Hartford. Performances are Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. plus an added matinee on March 22 at 2 p.m. There is no 2 p.m. performance on March 4, no performance on March 14 and no evening performance on March 22. $30-$100. hartfordstage.org/the-art-of-burning.

Reach reporter Christopher Arnott at carnott@courant.com.