Theater
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| Carrie Paff and Gabriel Marin hang from the edge of a bridge in the World Premiere of Collapse (Photo by David Allen) |
Theater: bridging the divide between tragedy and comedy
January 22, 2011
By Emily Wilson, ComedyBeat
In 2007, the Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis collapsed, killing 13 people and injuring another 145.
Many people wouldn’t find this a likely inspiration for a comedy, but Allison Moore, author of the play Collapse, saw a way to write about four people dealing with the aftermath, as well as their financial problems and struggles with infertility, in a humorous way.
“Most of my work plays with tone in some kind of way,” she said. “This particular one is a comedy of anxiety. That seems to me to be an honest way to deal with very difficult topics, in a hopefully engaging way.”
The humor comes out of the way people respond to the situations they’re in, Moore said.
“There’s a whole lot of denial, which is funny, because there’s a lot of humor in watching people vehemently deny anything is wrong,” Moore said.
Moore, a Minneapolis resident, saw how the bridge’s collapse affected everyday life.
“It was a huge deal,” Moore said. “It’s a major interstate highway with eight lanes of traffic going across the Mississippi River. My husband and I live on one side of the river and daily we were reminded that this bridge had collapsed. It had gigantic impacts on traffic patterns and people and businesses.”
When the financial services firm Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in 2008, Moore noticed parallels with how people responded to the economic meltdown and the collapse of the bridge.
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| Allison Moore, playwright |
“The big famous quote from Senator Amy Klobuchar was, ‘In the United States, bridges are not supposed to fall down,’” Moore said. “That’s what everyone said about Lehman Brothers: ‘Banks aren’t supposed to fail.’ But they did. They just failed.”
Another similarity Moore noticed was how people in both situations felt they had done everything right – but still everything fell apart.
“You just can’t prepare for everything that’s out there,” Moore said. “We labor under huge illusions of control in society. People think they’re going to build a secure career and go to the gym and get their cholesterol checked, and everything will be fine, but quite a lot of our life is out of our control. That’s particularly interesting to explore in a comedy.”
Collapse is a National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere collaboration with Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley, Curious Theatre in Denver, and Kitchen Dog Theater in Dallas. Jessica Heidt, who directs the production at the Aurora, says people might not expect a play about crumbling relationships and structures to be funny – but Collapse pulls it off.
“I was talking to my boyfriend about it and he was like, ‘Wait you say this is a comedy?’ and I said, ‘I swear it is,’” she said. “The humor comes out of the fact they’re so human, the characters, and they end up in ridiculous situations. Plus Allison has a phenomenal ear for dialogue, and a lot of the lines are just funny.”
Moore said she has written dramatic plays with a lot of humor, but now she’s shifted to writing what she thinks of as comedies with a serious question at the core.
“I said, ‘Well, what if I just commit and say I’m going to write a comedy?’” she said. “It’s been another level of exploration for me as a writer figuring out how to navigate the genre aspect of comedy, like how dark can we get with a comedy or how long can we sustain a serious scene.”
Moore says she doesn’t think of herself as a hysterically funny person.
“I’m not a particularly witty or quick witted person if I’m talking to you,” she said. “Most of my comedy in writing comes out of character and awkwardness as opposed to jokes.”
Dealing with issues about control and moving forward after horrible events is easier to take if you’re laughing, Moore thinks.
“I think you’re sort of open on a physical, biological level,” she said. “You’re breathing deeply and you’re more open. As long as audiences feel like they’re in good hands and you’re going to take care of them, they’re willing to go with you.”
Collapse
Aurora Theatre Company, Berkeley
DATES:
Previews: January 28, 29, February 2 at 8pm; January 30 at 2pm; February 1 at 7 p.m.
Opens: February 3, 2011; Closes: March 6, 2011
SHOWS
Tuesdays at 7 p.m.; Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Cast & Crew
Jessica Heidt is the director and cast members are Aldo Billingslea, Gabriel Marin, Carrie Paff, and Amy Resnick.