Darin Dahms, the writer and performer of The Player King, answered some quick questions for @SeeItOrSkipItLA!
1.What is THE PLAYER KING?
A: Well, it’s a one-man show inspired by the lives of Edwin Booth, Junius Brutus Booth and John Wilkes Booth. It takes place sometime after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Edwin Booth, perhaps the greatest Shakespearean actor in American history, is deciding whether or not he can return to the stage following his brother’s heinous crime. Part soliloquy, part memory play, it investigates Edwin’s personal relationship to his art and asks the question, “What does it mean to be an actor.”
2.Do you think we would still remember and be talking about the Booth brothers if John hadn’t shot Lincoln?
A: We probably wouldn’t be all that familiar with name of Booth if John Wilkes had not assassinated President Lincoln, and that is a shame. Especially for those of us who pretend to be actors. Outside of the cinema, American actors tend to have a very narrow understanding of the history of their art. Everyone knows (well, should know) that John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln on Good Friday, April 15th, at Ford Theatre, just 6 days after Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox. Most people do not know that Wilkes was an actor from a much celebrated and revered theatre family. His father, Junius Brutus, was a huge name in the theatre and was one of the very first American celebrities to play the west coast. His brother, Edwin, is still regarded by historians and critics as one of the greatest Shakespearean actors in American History. Edwin Booth held the record for 100 consecutive performances of Hamlet. This record wasn’t broken until John Barrymore, probably in a fit of ego, performed the Dane for 101 consecutive evenings. But it is even more important to contextualize Edwin Booth in History. At the time Edwin began performing, actors (though popular) were still regarded as little more than prostitutes and degenerates. An actor could not hope to receive a Christian burial. Edwin worked tirelessly to end the stigma associated with actors and elevate acting to a true and respected profession. Just before his death, a sitting president, Grover Cleveland, spoke personally at Edwin’s birthday and was a member of The Player’s Club (that Edwin had founded.) Edwin’s charitable work on behalf of struggling actors would become the Actor’s Fund. And he managed to do this in spite of the fact that his brother had killed Lincoln. Would we remember the name Booth? No. But the influence of the family is evident in the life and world of the actor even to this day.
3.How much of this play is biographical and how much of pure invention?
A: Well, everything in the play is historically accurate. I keep wanting to have some Lincoln/Booth/Civil War guru show up and really challenge me on the facts. I’m terribly excited for that to happen. Bring it on. However, I think it is important to stress that this is not an historical drama or character re-enactment. This play isn’t a stodgy old litany of historical names and dates and facts. It is a fully realized piece of theatre. I took pieces and moments and fragments from these men’s lives – the things that moved me, and that I related to, that I thought I could write about – and created this play. I tried to give each character a voice that seemed authentic. But, I wrote what I wanted to say and I wrote what I wanted to see. Moreover, I wrote it to challenge myself and my skills as an actor. It’s all biographical. It’s all autobiographical, in some strange way. How much is pure invention? Well, there are facts, there is some Shakespeare, but it has all been worked in the crucible of my own need and experience. Let me say this, it is all TRUE. Hang on that one for a second. My father, early on, when I was writing this, asked me, “So, the lives of these three men are the lattice upon which you hang your story?” “Yeah, I guess so.”
4.What about your show makes it perfect for the Fringe?
A: This question assumes that I know perfectly what the Fringe is, and I don’t. I know that there is a broad range of material being presented at this festival by a variety of artists from all stages in their artistic development. I think the idea of the Fringe brings to mind challenging and cutting edge work that doesn’t often have much of a shot in the mainstream. And that is the kind of work I love. The Player King challenge, primarily, me. I wrote it that way. And it is a monster to perform. It is kind of conservative in its tone and its topic. But do not be misled. There is a basic assumption about the craft of acting in this movie mad town that I attack with all due diligence in this piece. It may be subtle, but the savvy will understand. I’m writing and performing historical people, but I don’t ever want to fool the audience into thinking that it is anything other than an actor playing out these parts. Well, I do want to fool them, and then be able to say, “Aha! I just got you!” But it is never that rude. I love theatre. I love acting. I love the illusion and the magic. I try to share that love in this play. What makes it perfect for the Fringe? I don’t have two dimes to rub together, my life is in shambles, and still I say, like most of my fellow artists in this festival, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!”
5.What do you hope the audience walks away with after your show?
A: When an actor leaves The Player King, I want him or her to feel fully edified in his or her art. I want him or her to feel as though what they have chosen to do, through all the struggles, and all the sacrifice, has meaning. I want them to feel connected to the awesome history of which they are a part. I wrote a lot of this with actors in mind. And for everyone else, I want them to feel edified in their dreams and their loves. I feel amazingly blessed that folks who have seen this show have walked away loving entirely different moments for entirely different reasons. And those moments for those people resonated in some deeply personal fashion, and often in ways that I had never imagined as I was writing it. I think the most amazing kinds of art are the ones in which the artist has to forfeit ownership because the audience has conscripted it as their own. I hope the audience just walks away with the show, after my show, as if they own it, somehow.
6.What show, other than yours, are you most excited to see at the Fringe?
A: Oh, Lord! I have a huge list, but these are the ones I’m looking at right now -Four Clowns Presents Halfwits Last Hurrah (because I love clowns and clowning and these guys look really skilled and fantastic!) Ray Bradbury’s Pillar of Fire (I love Ray Bradbury and this looks compelling) and Nell Gwyne: A Dramatick Essaye on Acting and Prostitution (because I’m a History geek and love the Nell Gwyne story.)
Intrigued? You can see The Player King on these days:
MET Theatre, 1089 N. Oxford Ave., LA, CA, 90029.
Friday, June 12 at 8:00 pm
Saturday, June 13 at 8:00
Sundays, June 14 at 3:00 pm.
Friday, June 19 at 8:00
Saturday, June 20 at 8:00
Sundays, June 21 at 3:00 pm.
Friday, June 26 at 8:00
Saturday, June 27 at 8:00
Sundays, June 28 at 3:00 pm
Okay fine, you can have a discount too!
Half price for opening weekend – use code “opening”
For more information:
https://www.facebook.com/ThePlayerKing
For ticketing click here.
*As a special thank-you to all Fringers following my coverage, please enjoy 15% off purchases at In Heels Productions throughout the month of June. Use code HFF15 at checkout!