Drama as Protest: ‘Our Complacency Is Dangerous’

http://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/theater/wallace-shawn-evening-at-the-talk-house.html

Version 0 of 1.

An autocratic leader has won the vote. He has charm, yes, and smarts of a kind, but also a cruel streak. Beatings are frequent, and assassination — foreign and domestic — has become commonplace. His cultural pronouncements have had a chilling effect on the arts, theater in particular.

Take your seat for “Evening at the Talk House,” an ultra-dark comedy by the playwright and actor Wallace Shawn (“The Designated Mourner,” “Aunt Dan and Lemon”) for the New Group that begins performances at the Signature Center on Tuesday, Jan. 31. Though written years before Donald J. Trump announced his candidacy, and first produced in London in the fall of 2015, the play may strike some as oddly prescient.

Set in the course of one night, it eavesdrops on several people who worked together on “Midnight in a Clearing With Moon and Stars,” a fictitious flop from a decade ago. They have gathered for a reunion at a rundown club. As they snack and sip and reminisce, they reveal the brutality of the world outside and the ways that artists can abet it, resist it and ignore it.

The London production stoked controversy, with The Independent approvingly describing a “disturbing, balefully hilarious new play,” while many other critics attacked its tone, pace and politics. More than a year later, in the wake of Brexit and the presidential election, that controversy is likely to resonate anew.

On the morning of President Trump’s inauguration, Mr. Shawn, who also appears in the play, the director Scott Elliott and the other members of the cast — Matthew Broderick, Jill Eikenberry, John Epperson, Larry Pine, Claudia Shear, Annapurna Sriram and Michael Tucker — gathered at a rehearsal space to discuss drama as protest and whether or not to invite the president. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Is this a political play?

MICHAEL TUCKER Yes. It’s other things, too. But it’s most certainly political.

JILL EIKENBERRY I felt when I first read it that it was extremely relevant to our situation in this world, in this country. After the election, it felt way more relevant, chillingly relevant.

SCOTT ELLIOTT I decided to do it way before the election. Many people say Wally’s a prescient artist, and I’ve seen it. And then all of a sudden on election night, it was this feeling of, oh my God, this play crossed over from fiction to ——

EIKENBERRY True.

LARRY PINE If the election had gone the other way, this play would still be very relevant.

WALLACE SHAWN Plays began as political. The Greek plays were about communities and cities and kings and queens and how a country was run. We went through a brief period in the United States of somehow being so prosperous and secure that we forgot that we lived in the world, and plays were about what was happening in somebody’s kitchen.

Have you ever been a part of a play that failed unjustly?

PINE Oh God, yes. Every play.

SHAWN Most of my projects have been unsuccessful, so I’m a kind of expert on it. Most actors are very courageous people, and my experience is their commitment increases when it becomes clear that the show is not going to get universal approval. It’s an honorable role to be committing yourself to the unpopular play.

Is there anything wrong with apolitical plays, entertainment that simply comforts?

CLAUDIA SHEAR I think there’s a place for “Guys and Dolls” until the last splinter of light dies out on the planet.

JOHN EPPERSON I never liked that show. But I like “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”

SHAWN Speaking as someone who has devoted a lot of his life to doing some things that would certainly fit into the category of pure entertainment, that’s how I have lived. I’ve been paid for that. But complacency is a very serious problem. Too much soothing entertainment isn’t good for a person. If you admit that a play or a TV show or a movie can wake somebody up, you have to at least admit that possibly some plays or TV shows or movies might put people to sleep and help them in their quest for total oblivion. Personally, I would rather go to bed and have someone bring me a cup of tea. I don’t have a desire to go out and get arrested or something like that. But it may be necessary.

MATTHEW BRODERICK It’s a play; it’s not an essay. It’s not like we’re all sitting around saying, “Let’s change the world and its politics while we’re doing it.” We’re creating a human world.

EIKENBERRY And there’s a lot of irony, a lot of funny stuff. That’s another great way to tell a political story.

In the play, theater has died out. Is this likely?

ANNAPURNA SRIRAM A lot of friends my age don’t go to theater. I have one friend who will probably come, and this will be his second play. His first was another play I did. I definitely wonder what the next generation of theatergoers will look like.

SHEAR They’re all outside of “Hamilton.”

BRODERICK When I first did a play, I was absolutely sure that Broadway was dead. And now every time I’m in a play, you can’t get a theater. Your young friends are going to start watching plays at some point.

SRIRAM I hope so.

If it did die, would that be so bad?

BRODERICK I would be fine with that. We would get paid more.

TUCKER It would be a great loss. When it works, there’s nothing like it. If there were no theaters, no one could ever say, “I saw that, I was there, that moment.”

EIKENBERRY It’s been around for an awful long time; it’s hard to imagine that even this administration could do away with it. People don’t go to church that much anymore. They need collective experience.

EPPERSON I thought the election in 2000 would spur people to make more interesting work, but it didn’t seem like it did. And then after 9/11, it seemed like audiences wanted feel-good stuff. Maybe this election will make more interesting work. Scott, you said you already have things on your desk.

ELLIOTT A lot of screeches. A lot of screams.

In the world of the play, assassination has become the norm. Do you feel we’re moving toward a more violent world?

TUCKER There’s been slaughter, genocide since history began. But this is different.

SRIRAM It’s been going on for a long time, but it hasn’t been as public.

SHAWN Under Bush, torture became normal and most Americans accepted it. First they were shocked, and then they accepted it. And sadly, under the very likable Obama, these assassinations have become normal, and people have accepted that. In the case of killing Bin Laden, it was boasted about by apparently nice people. I’m not sure we understand the implications of that yet, the normalization of killing individuals.

What does it mean if apparently nice people just go on eating snacks and drinking cocktails and making art while these things are happening?

EIKENBERRY That’s the question of the play.

SRIRAM I feel grateful in real life just for the privilege of getting to be an actor, that I have the kind of sometimes insane work of putting on costumes and playing pretend, for a living! But what is my responsibility other than just trying to achieve and have ambition and success?

SHAWN Our complacency is dangerous to other people.

Have you always made it a point to do work that has political dimensions?

TUCKER Most of us don’t have that much of a choice. There are only a few actors who can choose what they want to do. There are actors who are very political who will join or form a company that only does political work. But I’m not much of a joiner. It’s really something that we have to think about individually.

EPPERSON I have a list of selfish reasons for doing it, too. My career has been a kind of trap: Performing in female clothing is one trap, and lip-syncing is another trap. It’s always good for me to do a job where people can realize, oh, he can do something else.

BRODERICK But I think we’re going to record all of your dialogue.

The reaction to this play in London a year ago was mixed to negative. Will it be received differently now?

TUCKER There will be negative responses, too, I imagine. People don’t like to be confronted.

EIKENBERRY Wally, do you have a fantasy — I think it happened to Sean O’Casey — that everyone gets up in the entire audience and starts throwing things at the stage? Would that make you happy?

SHAWN I don’t actually enjoy that. Nobody ever says, “I hated your play, because I happen to be very conservative, and I disagree with all of your ideas.” They say: “You’re a bad writer. We were bored. It’s not a good play.”

What about the “Waiting for Lefty” model, where the audience joins the resistance?

SHAWN I’m available. If the audience is inspired to activism, I’m thrilled and I’ll join in, but things don’t really happen quite that way.

Our president has a lot of strong opinions on art. How would you feel if he liked this play?

BRODERICK That should happen! A fan’s a fan.

PINE I don’t think he’s interested in plays.

EPPERSON I saw him at a fashion show once.

SHEAR I saw him at a party.

ELLIOTT He was in one of my plays in the ’90s. This play called “The Monogamist.” I videotaped prominent New York figures for the scenic transitions.

Will you invite him?

ELLIOTT Why not? Let him see it.

SHAWN I don’t know if it could influence Trump. It’s only 90 minutes long, but he’s one of those people who’s interested in himself, and when the topic goes off of him he becomes bored. We don’t mention him in the play. Maybe we should change that.