Something really great is happening at the LAByrinth Theater Company in New York.
We caught up with The Little Flower of East Orange a few weeks ago. This time, it was Philip Seymour Hoffman directing a play by Stephen Adly Guirgus. The duo had successes before with Our Lady of 121st Street and Jesus Hopped the
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
One of the best things about the LAB shows is that even when they fail, they fail big. The Last Days of Judas Iscariot was bloated and schizophrenic, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching it. It was the kind of mess that only really talented people could make.
Our Lady of 121st Street is one of the most underrated theater-going experiences of the past two decades.
I’m glad you’re writing about this, David. I know most people come here to talk about movies, and the majority of them probably don’t live in New York, but these productions should be destinations for anyone interested in the performing arts.
I had one of the best theater experiences of my life this past weekend. The Folger here in DC was just closing its sold-out run of Teller’s (of Penn and Teller) MacBeth. Imagine an intimate Shakesperian theater positively dripping with blood. And though I went for the stagecraft and illusion, the guy playing MacBeth was absolutely astounding, and we were close enough to actually see every thought cross his face. It was a lot more expensive than a movie, but it was a better experience than any movie I’ve seen in a long time.
And while I was at the Folger, I found out there’re putting on Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia next year, which is one of my all-time favorite plays, and one I’ve never seen staged. So, yay!
Arcadia is a masterpiece, agreed. And the kind that could never properly be turned into a movie without being kind of dumb.
I’m having one of those “too many outlets” moments…. I could have sworn I wrote about Teller’s Macbeth, which I saw in New Jersey in its initial run months ago.
I thought it was better conceived than executed, but hmmm… more worried about my own brain damage issues right now…
It was in New Jersey first and then came to DC (I think the New Jersey theater has some kind of joint venture agreement with the Folger). It might be that I’m not really a theater person, but I thought it was excellent. It also may have gotten better over the course of its run, as this was the final show.
They cut the play down to about two hours, and it felt modern with it’s emphasis on fighting, illusion and gory horror. The stagecraft was really cool to see in person, and though some of the supporting actors weren’t the best, the guy playing MacBeth really gave a helluva good performance.
Granted, we’re not the theater capital of the world here in DC, but we gave it a standing ovation, and people were buzzing about it as they were leaving the theater.
I find it amusing that Phillip Seymour Hoffman directs stage dramas considering his film acting is usually so big and broad that it would be a natural fit for theatre. He directed a play down here 2 years back (i think) with Cate Blanchett (i think). The memory is a little fuzzy.
Hoffman started as a stage actor and kept it up for awhile after his film career started — I saw him about ten years ago in a Broadway revival of True West, with John C. Reilly as the other brother (this was back when both of them were still “those guys from Boogie Nights”). He was in a B-way revival of Long Day’s Journey Into Night too.