other? Do we [focus on] one more than the other? I do remember there was a draſt or an attempt to pull the political, the social reality forward a little more. Trying to foreground the melting-pot-edness of Belleville. But all of that kind of fell by the wayside when we got into rehearsals [at Yale] and it became clear that it was the wrong direction to go. It was a more subtle layer; a kind of delicate string in the play that should be present, but vibrate at a low hum. Tat was my meddling gone wrong. It was great to go down that road and learn that wasn’t the best manifestation of the play.


Te danger of the thriller genre is that the revelation of information can simplify what’s come before. We were trying to avoid the idea that “Now the information’s out and that’s what the play has been about this whole time.” And so we were trying to avoid the simplification, with the hope that the revelation would actually expand rather than reduce the story.


At Yale, we were really trying to figure out so many


things—we were trying to figure out the play, and, like, how observant Alioune and Amina are, etc. Now in this rehearsal process we can delve deeper into character and genre, how we balance those two things, how one influences the other, what the relationship between those two things are andwhen we might leave realism slightly behind to gain [something else].


Aaron: Are there any ways—in a new city, in a new


space—that you’re thinking about how the play has changed since last season’s production at Yale Rep?


Anne: For me it feels like a continuation of rehearsal in the best possible way. I remember when we all decided we were going to do this together [at NYTW], one of Jim’s first questions was, “How are you going to use the opportunity to do this again?” I think in any situation having more time to explore something as complex as this play is an opportunity. It is the time that we get to spend with the discoveries we made the last time and have the time to keep unpacking these moments further. It’s really nice to just keep going deeper, and that’s what’s happening.


Aaron: Why the Workshop? Anne: Te political


resonances are something the


Workshop takes very seriously. It’s easy to have a one track mind about what this play is, when there are a lot of other resonances. Tere’s a way that New York Teatre Workshop, because of its history of producing politically challenging work, allows for all the [political undertones] to resonate. And I think the intimacy of the space is going to be really interesting.


Amy: It will be really nice if the audience can feel


implicated in what’s happening rather than removed. Tere are things about this play that are hard to watch that will be more effective in this space.


Park in Belleville 10


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