Love-Lies-Bleeding: Previews & Playwright
Posted by Martha Lavey on 5/01/2006
We just finished our first weekend of previews. We’ll rehearse again on Wednesday and Thursday with previews beginning again Thursday evening. We may have a rehearsal call on Friday as well. We open on Sunday, May the 7th.
Don saw the show for the first time on Saturday night. It’s always nerve-wracking to perform with the playwright in the audience. One wants to get the words right. (So of course, I flubbed a couple of lines that I never muffed previously.) When Don returned for Sunday’s show, I was less burdened by the force of his presence. If the pressure of the playwright’s presence is heavy on the actors, it is more so for the director. Amy was admittedly nervous about Don seeing the show. Don is an incredibly gracious person but my goodness, he’s Don DeLillo, honored American writer. And because he is a novelist more prominently than he is a playwright, he is accustomed to being the sole author of his work. A play requires the interpretive community of the director, the actors, and the production staff. He releases the play into our hands – will our work please him?
Amy and Don met on Sunday, after he had seen our Saturday night preview and just before Sunday’s preview. I talked to Amy in my dressing room before Sunday’s show. She seemed relieved – Don was approving. He gave her some notes which I’m sure we’ll discuss at Wednesday’s rehearsal.
I conducted a post-show conversation with our audience after Sunday’s preview. Our Associate Artistic Director, David New, joined me on stage. This is a wonderfully rich play to contemplate with an interpretive community and our conversation reflected that. I’ve been living with the play for months and yet a comment that one member of the audience made revealed a possibility in the play that I had never considered. I really encourage you to see the play. It’s a unique piece of writing supported by Amy’s assured hand in its direction. Stay for the discussion – I think you will be enlivened by the insight and candor of your fellow audience members. (And as far as I can tell, Don likes it).
May 4th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
I saw Valparaiso twice, once in Cambridge, Mass. and the other done by Stone Soup company in NYC. I hated the play in Cambridge and was spellbound by it in NY. It’s all in the production, as you know. Love-Lies-Bleeding at Steppenwolf had me rapt throughout. With subtle and sly humor, and an ever-changing set of perimeters, the characters play off each other, and never settle into resolution, but continually evoke ever more mystery even as they reveal themselves. I loved how you got the humor and the ridiculous aspects of the whole thing (the plastic bag big enough for a turkey… perfect!) as well as the profound aspects of all the big questions.. life, death, morality, love, hate, resentment, memory … beautifully (under)played and inter-acted. Miss Lavey, you are a marvel and continually evolve in this character, somehow even more central than “Alex”. John Heard , a “Bill Gray” character (from DD’s novel MAO II) if I ever saw one, is the right mix of oblivion ( regarding his son, or his impact on the wives) and artistic concentration, is esp’ly charming in the scene (between wives) with Toinette. Louis Cancelmi is both vulnerable and strong, also beautifully timed in his delivery, with a wonderful face, especially in the lighting of the “You know this…” scene. I traveled all the way from NY to see the play (and missed DD by one performance!!!) but it was well worth the trip. The play keeps resonating in my mind. Thanks very much.
May 4th, 2006 at 6:54 pm
I saw “Love Lies Bleeding” last Sunday and attended the discussion afterwards. Being somewhat reticent and liking to digest a play, I did not participate in the discussion afterwards and somewhat glad that I did not.
My first impression was not overly favorable, though Mr. De Lillo is an impressive writer. I thought the play too discursive. As one character says: “We’re just talking.” Talking is not what characters do. They do something.
I thought, though Mr. De Lillo is an excellent word smith, he did not use the one trope that is the choice, if not the necessity, of the playwright and that is irony, more specifically, dramatic irony.
Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut.
After mulling over the play and remembering the opening line that was Mr. De Lillo’s inspiration: “ I saw a dead man once,” and his line in the second act: “I always wanted to kill a man.” I began to feel there was deep, though somewhat dormant irony. Alex was an un- accomplished murderer who winds up being murdered himself.
May 8th, 2006 at 9:32 am
I saw “Love Lies Bleeding” on Friday night. I was very intrigued by the play’s exploration of end-of-life issues. The tension that is set-up between family members who have differing opinions on the course of action for a family member who can’t voice their own opinion rings true. When conflict arises in end-of-life decision making, it is often this kind of conflict. De Lillo captures this tension perfectly, and the actors portray it superbly. I wish there had been more exploration of how that tension gets resolved between the current wife and the ex-wife. The staging of this play is also appropriately emotional and dramatic. There is a timber arm that hangs over the set that eerily looked like an abstract gallows to me. Highly recommended.