What’s the hardest part about telling a story this big with a small cast in a small room?
It's the same hardest part of every show for me; the dichotomies of getting the details exactly right while keeping the full picture in mind. Making sure that everything is there to tell the story of the play.
What’s your favorite aspect of your work on the play (so far)?
The teamwork. And I mean that in the most literal sense. Sitting around a table with the rest of the creative team and talking about the play and the world of the play and the vocabulary (the words and the design). Having ideas coming from every direction, and inspiring and being inspired by each other.
What are you most excited for the audience to experience when they come to The Improbable Fall, Rise & Fall of John Law?
I am excited for them to laugh and be baffled and shocked and entertained. I am excited for them to connect with the characters and the story, and for that moment that it dawns on them that this absurd presentation of this absurd story, is the story of how our absurd financial and economic systems came to be.
If you became a millionaire overnight what would you do with your newfound wealth (besides donating generously to your favorite non-profit theatre company, of course)?
Now, this depends on how much of a millionaire I became. If it were just one or two million I would wipe out my debts, put the rest away and keep living my life the way I have. If it were some serious millions, I would use the money to establish both a non-profit foundation donating to artistic and medical causes that improve quality of life, and a venture capital enterprise that tackled the same artistic and medical issues from the commercial side.
What’s the most surprising thing about John Law or the history of money that you’ve learned working on this play?
That the way we think about money actually related to how we think about everything else. The transactional qualities of relationships, the accepted difference in value of two nearly identical things - be they a five-dollar bill vs. a five hundred dollar bill, or a pair of Levi jeans vs. a pair of Armani jeans.
What’s your take on John Law (or at least Matt’s version of John Law) – hero, villain, or somewhere in between?
I think he is a villain, but like almost all actual villains he doesn't see himself as such. He is definitely doing what he thinks will be best, he just doesn't have the foresight required to see how damaging his actions will become in the future. He also has little to no regard for how his actions affect those around him, except in how that effect affects him. |
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