Ben Affleck and Matt Damon: Play on their lives before fame is back

A play which takes a tongue-in-cheek look at Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s life before fame is back — 13 years after it became an Off Broadway hit.

Matt & Ben, written by Mindy Kaling and Brenda Withers, looks at what life could have been like for the friends before they shot to superstardom with their film Good Will Hunting.

Instead of actually penning the script for the 1997 hit movie like they did in real life, in the play it just drops on to their table from out of nowhere as if by magic.

The poster for the new adaptation of Matt & Ben — The poster for Matt & Ben, showing the pair and the Good Will Hunting script

It is set in 1995, and sees the pair imagine famous encounters to come as they work on an adaptation of JD Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye.

The new adaptation is being put on by the Flying V theatre company at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, MD, with Tia Shearer as Damon and Katie Jeffries as Affleck.

asdf — Tia Shearer who plays Matt Damon and Katie Jeffries who plays Ben Affleck

The play comes against a completely different backdrop to 2003 when it was first shown — both Affleck and Damon having long-ago cemented their celebrity credentials, with Affleck as Batman and Damon the long-running star of the super-popular Jason Bourne films.

The pair are still best friends though, with Affleck only last week posting an old picture of him and Damon together on Instagram with the hashtag #NationalBestFriendsDay.