Hari Nef is now the woman at the center of Pre-Existing Condition, becoming the fourth actor to take the role of A in Marin Ireland’s play at the Greenwich House Theater. Her three-week stint started on Monday, November 9, and the first production photos of her in the part, by Austin Ruffer, are now out.
Nef plays A through Saturday, November 28. She takes over from Susannah Flood, whose stint ended on November 7, and before her Lupita Nyong’o, who opened the run, and Phillipa Soo had the part; we covered both Soo’s and Flood’s arrivals. Two more are lined up after Nef: Edie Falco from November 30 to December 19, then Whitney White from December 21 until the run ends on January 8, 2027.
The role brings Nef back to the downtown stage where her theater career began. She made her New York stage debut in Jeremy O. Harris’s Daddy, then appeared in Denis Johnson’s Des Moines at the Polonsky Shakespeare Center in Brooklyn and in Thomas Bradshaw’s version of Chekhov’s The Seagull. On screen, she is best known as Gittel in Transparent, which earned her a share of a Screen Actors Guild ensemble nomination, and her film and television work since includes Assassination Nation, You, The Idol and Barbie.
Ireland, a Tony nominee as an actor, wrote the play, and Maria Dizzia directs. A is never given a full name. The play picks her up after she has left a violent partner and stays with the long administrative business of recovery, the appointments, the forms and the conversations with people who want to help, rather than restaging what happened to her. No violence is shown onstage.
The company around A is unchanged. Greg Keller, Dael Orlandersmith and Susannah Perkins continue, with Josh Tobin and Sarin Monae West as understudies. Sets are by Cate McCrea, costumes by Enver Chakartash, lighting by Isabella Byrd and sound by Palmer Hefferan.
Nef is also part of a post-show talkback tonight, Tuesday, November 10, after the 7 p.m. performance, with Tommy Dorfman and Perkins.
The production marked her arrival with a short clip on its Instagram account.
If the clip does not load, watch it on Instagram.
For what the critics thought of the production, see our review roundup.
Pre-Existing Condition runs 75 minutes with no intermission at the Greenwich House Theater, 27 Barrow Street, and tickets are on sale now.
