Entertainment

Actors make drama a divorce of nature

In the first few minutes of the New Group’s “Marie and Bruce,” the title couple take their place among some of history’s most codependent antagonists: George and Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Felix and Oscar in “The Odd Couple,” Itchy and Scratchy in “The Simpsons.”

Wallace Shawn’s 1979 play begins with the miserable pair in bed. He’s fast asleep; she’s fully awake.

After a few minutes of fidgeting and smoking, Marie (Marisa Tomei, in a vanity-free performance) can’t take it anymore: “I find my husband so goddamned irritating that I’m planning to leave him,” she declares. “And that’s a fact.”

What follows is some of the most toxic pillow talk in memory — “worthless piece of filthy s – – t” is one of Marie’s milder insults. Bruce (Frank Whaley) responds with soft-spoken obsequiousness.

But the play muddles who’s aggressive and who’s passive. The balance of power shifts, and Shawn tracks it in a detached manner, punctuated by repeated scatological references. The grim events make it a tough show to sit through.

After breakfast, Marie and Bruce agree to meet at a friend’s dinner party.

We see the couple’s dynamics change with others around. Tomei is much more affecting when Marie switches from shrewish to quiet and emotionally isolated. Meanwhile, the liquored-up Bruce gets bolder. Whaley’s deceptive hangdog look is a good front for his character’s blithe egotism.

After the party, at a cafe, Marie seems crushed by the breakup she wished for earlier, and Bruce unveils more pent-up hostility. The way he calls his wife “darling” is no longer soothing; it’s smarmy. The pair are still at odds — though now in a different way — and their mutual alienation is nasty.

Director Scott Elliot smartly makes the war kinetic: He stages the dinner party on a revolving platform that underlines Marie’s loneliness. He also gets spot-on work from an excellent supporting cast.

In the end, though, it’s all about Marie and Bruce, and their hellish stalemate. This is a marriage you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.

elisabeth.vincentelli@nypost.com