By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com

Wallace Shawn Releases an Audio Play, “Evening at the Talk House,”

Posted Wednesday, April 18th, 2018 - Comments Off on Wallace Shawn Releases an Audio Play, “Evening at the Talk House,”
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The Intercept presents “Evening at the Talk House,” a three-part audio play by award-winning actor and playwright Wallace Shawn, starring Matthew Broderick, Shawn, Larry Pine, Jill Eikenberry, Michael Tucker, John Epperson, Claudia Shear and Annapurna Sriram
New York, NY – April 18, 2018 – The Intercept, in collaboration with Topic Studios, is proud to present “Evening at the Talk House,” a darkly comic audio play by award-winning actor and playwright Wallace Shawn (The Princess Bride, My Dinner with Andre) about the insidious dangers of an authoritarian society.Following its limited off-Broadway run as a live theater piece directed by Scott Elliott, this audio drama is now available in three 30-minute acts, starting today, via a partnership with the podcast Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill.

To listen to “Evening at the Talk House,” visit the following link:
www.theintercept.com/talkhouse/ 

This audio dramatization of “Evening at the Talk House” brings back the award-winning cast featured in the off-Broadway play, which premiered in 2017 under the direction of Scott Elliott, for the New Group: actors Matthew Broderick (The Producers), Wallace Shawn, Larry Pine (The Royal Tenenbaums), Jill Eikenberry (Young Adult), Michael Tucker (L.A. Law), Claudia Shear (Blown Sideways Through Life), John Epperson (Lypsinka), and Annapurna Sriram (Billions). The audio drama was produced and directed by Pejk Malinovski, with Jeremy Scahill and Leital Molad serving as Executive Producers.

Returning to an exploration of authoritarian societies, a recurring theme in his work, Wallace Shawn tells the story of an intimate group of writers and performers who reunite to celebrate a beloved, failed collaboration from their past. But the world is now very different, and more quietly dangerous – and so are they. As drinks and hors d’oeuvres are consumed, small talk evolves into more sinister topics — and it’s slowly revealed that some of these friendly acquaintances have committed morally questionable acts.

“I think of myself as a pretty innocent person,” said Wallace Shawn in a recent interview with Jeremy Scahill. “I act in rather innocent TV shows, but, you know, when I pay my taxes those dollars go directly to the Saudis who are committing massacres in Yemen. I’m paying for it.”
Shawn continues: “The play reflects this reality that we Americans don’t see violence, and we don’t even see the ugly side of ourselves. We just sort of pay for it.”

Wallace Shawn is an American playwright and actor whose first plays, “Our Late Night” (winner of an Obie Award), and “A Thought in Three Parts,” were widely discussed and celebrated. He went on to co-star, as well as co-write, Louis Malle’s celebrated film My Dinner with Andre (1981) with André Gregory. His other live action roles include The Princess Bride (1987), Vanya on 42nd Street (1994), and Clueless (1995).

Shawn’s 1985 play “Aunt Dan and Lemon” won him a second Obie, and “The Fever,” which opened in 1991, gave him a third. Other recent plays include “The Designated Mourner” and “Grasses of a Thousand Colors.” His recently released book “Night Thoughts” was referred to as “a compelling diagnosis of the world’s injustice” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

About The Intercept:
The Intercept, a publication of First Look Media, was launched in 2014 to provide an outlet for fearless, adversarial journalism. Our reporters have the editorial freedom to hold powerful institutions accountable, digging beneath official narratives to reveal the hidden truth. The Intercept’s award-winning coverage focuses on national security, politics, civil liberties, the environment, technology, criminal justice, media, and more. Regular contributors include co-founding editors Glenn Greenwald and Jeremy Scahill.

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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