Theater
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| Playwright Theresa Rebeck |
Magic Theatre seeks emotional truth amidst laughter
February 14, 2011
By Emily Wilson, ComedyBeat
SAN FRANCISCO - While watching a reading of an eight-page play by Theresa Rebeck last year at a celebration of Rebeck’s work, Loretta Greco, artistic director of the Magic Theatre in San Francisco, said she had rarely laughed so hard.
“Theresa and I were in the front row, holding on to each other,” Greco said. “I was almost falling out of my seat, and I’m no pushover.”
The piece was about how men at an architecture firm react to an ambitious new female hire. Rebeck, a playwright and novelist who also writes for TV and the movies, said she had always meant to do something with the piece, written about 18 years ago. Greco encouraged her to turn it into a full-length play.
“It’s 18 years old, only nothing has changed,” Greco said. “When I saw it, I thought, ‘Oh my God, is this ever alive.’”
Now Rebeck has written that full-length play, “What We’re Up Against,” which plays at the Magic from Feb. 2 to March 6. Greco directs.
Rebeck says gender politics haven’t changed much in the last two decades. “What We’re Up Against” looks at how that plays out in the workplace .
“We’re not a country that cares about excellence anymore,” she said. “We just care about internal politics at work. It’s funny even though that doesn’t sound funny.”
The play is billed as a “laugh-out loud comedy.” Greco says that the humor comes from people behaving badly while trying to get ahead at work – and keeping others down.
“Nobody reacts well when fear surrounds you,” she said. “Theresa’s work is so refreshingly candid and refreshingly real. That’s what I think the audience was laughing so hard. They recognize themselves.”
“What We’re Up Against” is exactly what she wants from theater, Greco says.
“I want something substantive, recognizable and I want to be able to laugh,” she said.
Both Greco and Rebeck agree that along with telling an emotional truth, theater should be entertaining.
“I love audiences,” Rebeck said. “I’m writing for an audience.”
Unfortunately, this isn’t true of all playwrights, Greco said.
“Some writers think if you don’t get it, you’re just not smart enough,” she said. “I’m not going to pay money to sit in the audience and be told I’m stupid.”
Comedy can bring audiences together, Rebeck says.
“Theater creates community in the best sense,” she said. “When you have an entire room laughing at the same time, it’s cathartic.”
Rebeck says her hero right now is the French playwright, Molière. On a recent trip to France, she made a point of seeking out a painting of him.
“He was smart and funny and honest and he wrote with affection and anger,” she said. “He’s the man.”
Molière’s work shows how comedy can go deep, Rebeck thinks.
“I always thought if tragedy was about death, comedy was about what happens after death – resurrection,” she said. “That might be the Catholic in me.”