What was the inspiration for this performance?
Eric: The piece began when I was reading about the
Dirty War in Argentina. In particular, I was drawing from this book Lexicon of Terror by Marguerite
Feitlowitz which, in part, discusses how everyday language got corrupted during
the Dirty War. Innocent words and phrases became oblique references to state
violence. From there, I began writing a play about a fictional country
grappling with a new, totalitarian government.
Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of
ideas?
Lila & Eric: On some
days I’m deeply suspicious of what theatre actually accomplishes. It always
feels funny to say that my artistic discipline just happens to be the most important discipline. That said, I think the
value of theatre is that it is the most social of the art forms. It lives at
the perimeter of civic activity and artistic practice. It cannot exist without
collaboration. Because of all of this, perhaps naively, theatre feels to me
like one of the few collective experiences left in the world, and therefore a place for social and public
discourse on ideas and events.
How did you become interested in making performance?
EricL When I was four years old a touring production
for Beauty and the Beast came through
town. I was hooked from that point on. It wasn’t until college that I really
figured out I didn’t want to act (and that I was a bad actor), and wanted to
write instead.
Lila: My story is exactly the same, except that it
was middle school and I was auditioning for Seussical the Musical, and in
college I figured out I wanted to direct.
Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?
Lila: bad things happen here is
rhythm-driven, meaning that the stagecraft and technical elements are designed
to ensure that nothing disrupts the quick pace and accumulation of the play.
Eric is very intentional about when information is released to the audience, so
paradoxically, the design is abstract so that you're not getting a ton of
detail about place, time, world, etc. from the set and costumes. All of the
information comes through the dialogue and relationship between the characters.
There's very little blocking and gesture, the costumes might be something one
might wear today, and the original music communicates tone and mood rather than
location and setting. Each design element acquires specific meaning only later
in the play. (And we don't want to give too much away!) The design team and
actors have done an extraordinary job painting with an extremely limited
palette.
Does the show fit with your usual productions?
Eric: Yes and no. I always try to work from a place
of not-knowing when I approach each new show. I’m at my worst when I work with
rules from previous projects to make the next one. That said, I think bad things happens here shares certain
common interests that run through my work - issues of political corruption,
class, and misogyny; a structural playfulness; a resistance to easy catharsis
or resolution; a certain minimalist aesthetic.
Lila: I tend to approach my work through a lens of
power: who has it and who doesn't? How is it functioning in the world of the
play? In that sense, bad things happen
here fits very neatly with the rest of my work. Aesthetically, it's the
most strictly minimalist production I've ever directed. I almost always think
less is more onstage, but with bad things
happen here we really took that to an extreme, which was very exciting.
What do you hope that the audience will experience?
Eric: The play asks how we challenge or become complicit
in systems of oppression. By presenting the play through the eyes of over forty
characters, my hope is it eschews any easy answers or feelings that one
character is the “correct one.” Hopefully, the play leaves spaces for a
multiplicity of points of view. There’s also lot of surprises throughout,, and
we hope people enjoy the mystery of the piece.
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