Saturday 11 June 2016

All Aboard the Dramaturgy Hearse: Matt Morillo @ Edfringe 2016

Joanne Hartstone presents 
All Aboard the Marriage Hearse


The team behind 2013’s award-winning The Inventor and the Escort (Outstanding Theatre Performance – Fringe Review) returns with the UK premiere of the internationally acclaimed All Aboard the Marriage Hearse.

A romantic, serio-comic play, All Aboard the Marriage Hearse is about Sean and Amy, a cohabitating lapsed Catholic/Jewish couple living in Manhattan. After several happy years together, Amy wants to get married, but Sean doesn’t believe in the institution. 

Tonight, the gloves will come off as they both bring their ‘A’ game. Sean will try and talk Amy out of it. Amy will try and talk Sean into it. 

Will they break up? Will they stay on the same path? Or will they climb aboard the ‘Marriage Hearse’?

All Aboard the Marriage Hearse had its world premiere in New York City in 2008, selling out houses, getting positive reviews and catching the attention of renowned marriage counselor Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who began a public debate with playwright Morillo on the institution of marriage. 

In 2015, All Aboard the Marriage Hearse ran to great acclaim and sold out houses in Croatia and Mexico. This new production at the Edinburgh Fringe sees the return of Morillo to the director’s chair and Jessica Moreno, the star of the aforementioned The Inventor and The Escort, returns for the first time to the role she created in the play’s 2008 debut.



What was the inspiration for this performance?

At the time I wrote this play I was in my early 30s and my friends were getting married one by one and I couldn't help but think many of them were making a big mistake.  I wondered if I should say something to the ones I thought were making a mistake, but then a thought occurred to me.  I realized that if any of these marriages didn't work out, they could just...divorce.  They could just get out of it.  And if you can just get out of a marriage, admittedly with more paperwork and more money spent, what really does it mean?   

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

I had a pretty stellar troupe of actors in my NY days in film and in theater and wrote the play with specific actors in mind.  When the opportunity arose to do this show in Edinburgh, I knew I wanted to put the band back together, so to speak.  


How did you become interested in making performance?

Having had some successful runs in Edinburgh in 2014 and 2015 I felt that Edinburgh audiences would like this show and we decided to bring it.


Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

It was.  I've been working in theater for 10 years and I have a method of working which produces the results I want.  And working with actors that I have worked with numerous times  made it enjoyable.  They know the way I work and I know the way they work.  

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope that, like audiences in NY, LA, Croatia and Mexico, they will laugh, cry and feel every emotion and have one of the most enjoyable 65 minutes one could have in a theater.  

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I wanted to make sure that the material was something that your average audience could relate to.  So I took great care in making sure that these characters were real people, and that the actors portrayed them as real people with real reactions, fears, motivations and dreams.  That's the only way to make the audience feel all the emotions we want them to feel.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

Not really.  I've done broad comedy, serious drama, serious comedy and some stuff in between.  When I get an idea I just write it.  Sometimes it's funny.  Sometimes serious.

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