Review: In 'Marble,' marriage sucks but the characters all knew that anyway

“Marble,” Marina Carr’s dark comedy, opened in Chicago at the Copernicus Center in Jefferson Park, produced by the Gift Theatre. The plot centers on Ben (John Gawlik), who learns from his friend Art (Paul D’Addario) that Art has had an erotic dream about Ben’s wife, Catherine (Brittany Burch). Catherine reveals she has also had the same dream. The production’s guiding idea is that marriage “kind of sucks,” played out through two unhappy upper-middle-class couples whose acceptance of their routines lowers the emotional stakes. Direction by Kay Martinovich and a Gift ensemble cast are key to turning the script’s themes into resonant, laugh-tinged drama.