BENNY & BORIS GO HOME

Two best friends meet on a park bench for their weekly card game. Benny, a workaholic lawyer, can't stop trying to fix Boris's life. Boris, a gas station attendant, just wants to play cards and enjoy their time together. When their conversation turns to Benny's plan to put his aging father in a retirement home—and then to Boris's past relationship with Benny's wife—decades of resentment explode, ending their...

Two best friends meet on a park bench for their weekly card game. Benny, a workaholic lawyer, can't stop trying to fix Boris's life. Boris, a gas station attendant, just wants to play cards and enjoy their time together. When their conversation turns to Benny's plan to put his aging father in a retirement home—and then to Boris's past relationship with Benny's wife—decades of resentment explode, ending their friendship.
Fifty years later, the same two men, now in their eighties, meet again at the same park bench. Time has reversed their fortunes: Boris became a successful businessman while Benny's marriage ended in divorce. As they navigate their way back to friendship, long-held secrets emerge—including a betrayal and an unexpected act of kindness that shaped both their lives. When Benny's son decides to place him in the Sunset Retirement Home, Boris makes a choice that proves some bonds can never truly be broken.
A tragicomic two-hander about friendship, regret, aging, and second chances, told across two acts separated by half a century.

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BENNY & BORIS GO HOME

Recommended by

  • Danielle Wirsansky: BENNY & BORIS GO HOME

    Heartfelt, funny, and deeply humane, *Benny & Boris Go Home* spans a lifetime of friendship with warmth and wisdom. Shulman deftly explores regret, loyalty, and reconciliation, showing how time can reshape fortunes but never fully sever the bonds that matter most. A touching two-hander filled with humor, heartbreak, and grace.

    Heartfelt, funny, and deeply humane, *Benny & Boris Go Home* spans a lifetime of friendship with warmth and wisdom. Shulman deftly explores regret, loyalty, and reconciliation, showing how time can reshape fortunes but never fully sever the bonds that matter most. A touching two-hander filled with humor, heartbreak, and grace.

  • Jack Levine: BENNY & BORIS GO HOME

    “BENNY AND BORIS GO HOME”, by Morley Shuman, is such a heartwarming full-length play about two best friends. Their lives are intertwined in so many ways, as their choices of careers, values, perceptions, prejudices, all become a lesson in what is the really important in life. Frankly, I was so enthralled with this beautiful story, the witty and meaningful dialogue, and depth of each of the two characters that I wished there was more. Sequel? You will love this play. It needs to be produced. BRAVO!

    “BENNY AND BORIS GO HOME”, by Morley Shuman, is such a heartwarming full-length play about two best friends. Their lives are intertwined in so many ways, as their choices of careers, values, perceptions, prejudices, all become a lesson in what is the really important in life. Frankly, I was so enthralled with this beautiful story, the witty and meaningful dialogue, and depth of each of the two characters that I wished there was more. Sequel? You will love this play. It needs to be produced. BRAVO!

Character Information

Requires either two actors in their 20's/30's or two actors in their 20's/30's plus two actors in their 70's/80's
  • Younger Benny
    Young Benny (20s/30s) is an ambitious, workaholic lawyer trapped in a cycle of proving his worth to a father who never gave him approval; insecure beneath his professional success, he masks his anxieties by trying to control and "fix" everyone around him, particularly Boris, while remaining blind to how his need for validation is destroying both his friendships and his marriage.
    Character Age
    20's/30's
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    Jewish
    Character Gender Identity
    Male
  • Younger Boris
    Young Boris (20s/30s) is a good-natured gas station attendant who values happiness and authentic connection over career ambition; easygoing and quick with a joke, he deflects Benny's condescension with humor but harbors unresolved feelings about his ex-girlfriend Mildred and deeply resents being treated as a project rather than an equal by his supposedly best friend.
    Character Age
    20's/30's
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    Jewish
    Character Gender Identity
    Male
  • Older Boris
    Older Boris (70's/80's) is a retired, self-made businessman who uses humor and gentle wisdom to navigate difficult emotions; successful beyond anyone's expectations yet humble and forgiving, he chooses reconciliation over resentment and demonstrates profound emotional courage by deciding to move into the retirement home to spend his remaining years with his best friend.
    Character Age
    70's/80's
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    Jewish
    Character Gender Identity
    Male
  • Older Benny
    Older Benny (70's/80's) is a bitter, divorced retired lawyer facing placement in a nursing home by his son; carrying decades of regret over his failed marriage, estranged relationship with his child, and the 50-year loss of his best friend, he's defensive and self-pitying until he's forced to confront the consequences of a lifetime spent working instead of living and the betrayal he committed against Boris out of spite.
    Character Age
    70's/80's
    Character Race/Ethnic Identity
    Jewish
    Character Gender Identity
    Male

Development History

  • Type Reading, Organization Bernard Betel Centre, Year 2026