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America: Boom, Bust, and Baseball Guide: Tapping into the American Psyche, Dramaturg Whitney Eggers interviews Paradise Lost director Daniel Fish
JAN 27, 2010
Daniel Fish: “Someone once said to me that people who work in theater either got into the theater because of Brecht or because of American musicals. For me it was both.”
Whitney Eggers: How did you get interested in theater?
Daniel Fish: Someone once said to me that people who work in theater either got into the theater because of Brecht or because of American musicals. For me it was both. I was fascinated with theater ever since I was four. As a kid I saw everything from musicals to Peter Brook and Andrei Serban.
WE: What has shaped your artistic vision?
DF: Shakespeare. Working on Shakespeare’s plays has affected how I work on all plays, how I approach language and acting. His plays have fed my obsession with the irrational. And for better or worse, I bring that to everything I work on.
WE: How did you get involved in the regional theater in America?
DF: I interned with the A.R.T. twenty years ago-around the same time Diane [Paulus, the A.R.T.’s current Artistic Director] was at Harvard. The A.R.T. was known for doing the most exciting work. I worked on ‘Tis A Pity She’s A Whore, directed by Michael Kahn. Long story short, the A.R.T. was my first time, so it’s good to be back!
WE: This will be your second time directing Odets-you’ve previously directed Rocket to the Moon. Why do you like Odets?
DF: He’s written a play about loss, about a family that loses everything. This play taps into the American psyche-the tension between being out hell-for-leather for yourself and a moral responsibility to take care of others. Odets connects to this tension.
WE: Odets isn’t often produced anymore; why has he fallen out of favor with audiences?
DF: He hasn’t fallen out of favor with audiences, he’s fallen out of favor with producers! When audiences are given the chance to experience his work, they respond positively. Producers dismiss these plays as dusty family melodramas, but I don’t think that’s what the plays are. Odets is a far more poetic writer than people may give him credit for.
WE: Will Paradise Lost speak to audiences now?
DF: The play deals with people who have worked hard, who have dreams, who care about their children. Through no fault of their own, they lose everything. And that’s going on in the country right now. When we began working on the production, newspapers were full of articles about the housing market, about foreclosures. So it’s totally contemporary. It’s a play that matters.
WE: How are you approaching the realism of Paradise Lost?
DF: There’s nothing more fake than three walls with one wall removed. And yet we all accept it as real. Nothing makes my heart sink more than coming to the theater, and seeing the curtain going up on a living room. I just want to shoot myself. My set is very spare, there will be some video. The use of video is like the use of light or scenery or costume or text. Paradise Lost has a huge scope, but the play is really about the people in it. Video allows the audience to see the actors close up. One of the things I find exciting in using video is the ability to see an actor play for the stage and have the camera capture that. It creates a tension I like.
