How to Play a Man in Hell
Posted by Marc Grapey on 7/21/2008Last time I blogged about being dead, now I have to talk about coming to in the underworld:
I play Gordon in Dead Man’s Cell Phone, and in the first scene of the play I am discovered dead at a table in a cafe. A little bit later I address the audience in the form of a long monologue, and then finally, I appear in a scene with Jean, the play’s protagonist.
It’s the first time I interact with another character on stage and it’s sure nice to have someone to talk to; though it seems to mean different things to each of us. Jean is having a dream about being dead and I am actually dead. But none the less, we find ourselves together where we discuss various topics, among them, how to do your laundry in the afterlife and how we may be more alike than Jean would like to admit.
From an acting standpoint, it’s very interesting to kind of “join” the play midstream; up until this moment I feel like I am in a one man show (not that I mind). It’s great to be on stage with Polly Noonan, who plays Jean, as she has been the audiences’ guide throughout the whole play. She has been on stage for almost the whole play and she is always raring to go. I look forward to this scene each night because we each come from such a different place every night—-her working in front of the audience for an hour and a half and me from the green room working on crossword puzzles. Our energies collide and we kind of go at each other. We talk, we fight and we share what might be the oddest kiss since Madonna and Britney.