FFWD Weekly
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| THEATRE When They Stop Dancing For the latest in his string of plays about troubled artists, playwright John Murrell has chosen a whopper. When They Stop Dancing, which premieres at Theatre Junction this week, revolves around Swedish playwright August Strindberg, who, by all accounts, was a man with some serious issues. "He wasn't a very polite, pleasant man and he was known as a misogynist," says director Susanne Gillies-Smith. "I think you see an insight into his world, but I don't know if it makes you sympathetic or makes you want to kill him." One of the themes that Strindberg addressed in plays like The Father (1887) and Miss Julie (1888) was the ageless battle between the sexes, a battle that the writer manifested in his own life. "From my gatherings, historically, he was very faithful," says Gillies-Smith. "He had three wives and he was faithful when he was with them. My interpretation is that he really needed them. He was never without a woman for very long because he needed to have that in his life, and that drove him nuts." In Murrell's play, a young Strindberg spends New Year's Eve with his first wife, Siri, and Siri's lesbian friend, Marie-David. Gillies-Smith says that Siri's relationship with Marie-David may have been one factor in Strindberg's descent into despair, but certainly not the only one. "He had a volatile life," she says. "He just drew chaos into his life and if there wasn't chaos, he'd create it. He really wanted to dig. There's something in the play where he's by himself and he's really hurting, and that isn't enough; he needs to hurt more, so he actually purposely hurts himself. He's one of those people that just digs. So I imagine that this was a big turning point, but I also imagine that there were lots of other turning points, as well." The director says this play differs from Murrell's previous work in several important ways. For one thing, it feels very much as if it was written by one of Strindberg's contemporaries. "It feels very Chekhovian or like Strindberg," she says. "(Murrell) tried to write it in that style and I think he succeeded, because it feels very foreign and it's very subtle. You know, like in a Chekhov play - if you just read it, basically nothing happens, unless you get all the other layers underneath, and this play is very much like that. You have to keep going down, like peeling the layers of an onion away, to get what's really going on." Another important difference, of course, is this play is having its world premiere at the relatively small Theatre Junction, instead of the major regional or national companies that have given Murrell's other plays their first productions. "John is an amazing man," Gillies-Smith says simply. "He gave (the play) to Theatre Junction because he believes in growing as an artist himself.... He believes in Theatre Junction and he believes in young artists." She appreciates the freedom she has had to interpret the play, despite the fact that a playwright of John Murrell's stature is involved in the production. The former teacher has been very open to the ideas of the young director and cast for whom he wrote the play, she says. "I told him that I was really impressed with him, that I didn't think he'd be as open as he is, being at the level that he's at," she admits. "It's really inspiring to see an artist who's been in the business for quite a while to keep wanting that. I know that when I hit a later age, it'll be hard to go, 'Okay, I can't relax, I want to keep growing,' because growing is painful." |