“Richard told me about a play he was thinking of writing-a ‘disposable’ play, a topical play, a sort of ‘once this time is over, it won’t be of interest’ play, but as time went on he discovered that these plays-these families, really, the Apples and the Gabriels-are universal. Dressed in jeans, a turtleneck, and boots on a blustery day, Plunkett brought to mind the actress Sandy Dennis, whom she resembles: reviewing Dennis’s performance in the 1989 play “Any Wednesday,” the critic Walter Kerr wrote, “Let me tell you about Sandy Dennis-everyone should have one at home.” Plunkett shares that aura of approachability. Or maybe it was the reverse,” Plunkett said with a laugh, before a rehearsal on Lafayette Street. “I was going up the staircase, and he was coming down. Nelson’s friend, the late David Jones, was directing the play, and Nelson had come to see it. Maryann Plunkett, who played Barbara Apple in Richard Nelson’s quartet “The Apple Family Plays,” at the Public Theatre, and is now appearing as Mary Gabriel in “The Gabriels,” also at the Public, first heard about Nelson’s idea for a play that centers on national events when she was acting in a revival of Lillian Hellman’s “The Autumn Garden,” at the Williamstown Theatre Festival, in the summer of 2007.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |