The Author

The press were pretty good, really. They had nothing but praise for the two actors. Some failed to get the poetics, really. They all commented on the visceral, er, experiential quality of the writing. And, of course, the more gruesome aspects of the production

This is the safest place in the world! Don’t you think. ______? Safe, in here? Where
are you with safety? I mean, nothing really happens in here, does it? Not really. Nothing real

I had lost my joy.
There were a lot of ideas in my head. A lot of images. My job was to find a story that would contain those ideas, those questions. A relationship. That’s the job of a writer. Not to go in and solve things. But to reveal things, things for other people to solve. To present the truth of the story.
I wasn’t fun any more

The audience could see that we’d done our research, you understand, they believed us. The fear looked so real. They left the theatre absolutely stunned. In shock

Everything we did was to help to tell the story

In here, in the shoulders like this. Moving like this. Their arms like this.
He performs an action with his shoulders.ESTHERjoins in

We looked at the people. Tim talked about how the violence of the culture is shown in the bodies of the people we saw – the way they sit – like this. Or the way they hold their anger and despair. I understood this. As an actor, I understood this. I work through the physical. From the outside in

Then the relationship between me and the audience is alive, is real, not rhetorical but active. Something is at stake. Tim said you should get them to a point where they almost feel able to answer back. Or shout out

Enlisting is a good one! I’m enlisting you! Or they need seducing or pleasuring!
Pleasuring!
Pleasing, I mean

They have to maybe need convincing of something, or persuading of something or rousing or enlisting