BWW Interviews: Michael Kash and David Ferry talk 'HUGHIE'

Eugene O’Neill’s play Hughie officially opened last Wednesday at the Theatre Centre, marking the first time the show has been performed as a single bill in Canada. The production is the first offering from the newly formed Alley Theatre Workshop, a Toronto based company led by Michael Kash which is dedicated to presenting world class theatre and developing new work.

Hughie is one of O’Neill’s lesser known works, but it has had an illustrious history and some notable productions and performances over the years.  The 45-minute, two character, one-act is a character study of sorts, and tells the story of an alcoholic gambler who goes on a bender after the night clerk of the seedy motel where he has resided for fifteen years passes away.

Directed by Dora Award-winner David Ferry, the production stars Michael Kash as Erie Smith and Laurence Dean Ifill as Hughes.  BWW spoke with both Ferry and Kash about the reasoning behind choosing Hughie as the first presentation of the ATW, and about why this particular production will appeal to a younger audience:  

Michael Kash:

Congratulations on Hughie and the formation of the Alley Theatre Workshop.  What made you choose Hughie for the ATW's first production?

I knew Hughie was a piece that I had to do after I saw Al Pacino workshop it at the Longwarf Theatre.  I was living in New York at the time and couldn’t believe I was going to get the chance to see Pacino life.  No press was permitted as he worked with Paul Benedict for a month in front of the public as a presentation.  When I saw him do it again at Circle in the Square on Broadway a month or so later I knew I wanted to do it.  So I tucked it in my back pocket for sixteen years because I was 31 then and the character of Erie Smith is 45! 

What has the journey been like so far? Are you being welcomed and well received by the Toronto theatre community?

The journey so far has been in two parts.  The first part is the least enjoyable and that is the producing.  Raising money is not easy at the best of times and there are a lot of other details that I have to take care of.  Having said that, I am blessed with amazing friends and colleagues that ultimately come together when ATW is in swing. 

The second part of the journey is the acting.  This has been so fantastic on so many levels.  First and foremost I get to work with the brilliant David Ferry whose direction and artistry always amazes and challenges me.  I’m also on stage with the wonderful Laurence Dean Ifill who is beyond talented.  Wrapping my mouth around O’Neill’s words is such a challenge but they are all so good and poetic that emotionally layering the character becomes that much more enjoyable the more I do it.

We have been well received in the past even though we are not in the eye of the storm so to speak.  People have started talking about it more and it is one of O’Neill’s lesser known works which is something I actually like about it.  

Could you tell us a little bit more about your goal with ATW and what you hope to do next?

My goal with ATW is to forge ahead and grow the company within the city of Toronto and gather more financial support so we can find a home to work out of again.  The other main component which is really exciting to me is working with charities that focus on children.  Right now we are working with Anaphylaxis Canada.  I’m an asthmatic and although Anaphylaxis Canada’s main focus is not asthmatics they do work with a lot of them.  We are doing a benefit performance on February 26^th and all the proceeds go to Anaphylaxis Canada for their ongoing work. 

As independents we may not have deep pockets but we are able to contribute as a result of our work and what we do.  Isn’t that what community is all about? My philosophy around it is based on how Joe Papp created Shakespeare in Central Park and the Public Theatre. We are looking at a few options creatively and want to get through Hughie before we announce the next big one, but it involves Leonard Bernstein and another involves coffee! 

Finally, what would you say to encourage a younger audience to come out and see this production?

I would say to a younger audience that this is a play quite unlike most in that it is only an hour and the language is from another time.  This is something we normally only see in movies or cartoons because it takes place in New York in 1928 and there is also live jazz being played as the show begins.  All these elements together give a younger audience a taste of history and what is possible when different creative forces come together.  To top it off there is an Installation Art piece in each washroom themed around the time period of the play.  

David Ferry

First off, tell us a bit about your take on Hughie? What direction are you taking the show in? 

In our North American theatre orbit Hughie is primarily associated with star productions: Jason Robarts, Ben Gazarra, Al Pacino and Brian Dennehy.  Tour de force opportunities.  But the play offers us more than a fantastic opportunity to look at the superb “close up” performance potential of this fine play.  It offers us a chance to look at the world of the play, its time and place with equal magnification.

It was through thinking about that world and that time, and through O’Neill’s detailed description of the setting, that I began to see the piece dramaturgically via its metaphorical meaning.  The summer of 1928 in New York was a year away from the stock market crash and bank failures of 1929, prohibition was in full swing, Arnold Rothstein was fixing races and ball games, Langston Hughes was writing extraordinary poetry within the Harlem Renaissance and jazz was flowering in watering spots all over town.  But O’Neill wrote for us a dilapidated hotel crumbling around the desk clerk, not a penthouse pad shining with the patina of good times.  He was, I believe, looking at the broader story behind that of a down and out drunk small time hustler trying to make a connection with a burnt out desk clerk over the loss of his only friend.  I believe he was also writing via the rear-view mirror about the end of a time and the transition into a huge seismic shift within his society. 

Some immensely talented actors have taken on this piece in the past, including Jason Robards and Al Pacino.  It's obviously the type of story that requires very serious acting chops.  How did you go about casting the leads?

Michael Kash started talking to me about the play a couple of years ago when I was direction him in his Dora nominated performance of Shanley’s Where’s My Money?  I had been approached myself a few years earlier to act in it, and had seen Dennehy in the role so I knew the piece well.  Michael is much closer to how O’Neill wrote the role in terms of age, and also I think in terms of type he’s closer than a lot of the actors who have played the role in the past.  He also has a lovely vulnerability in his work that is important to the role, and he’s a secret New Yorker!

In casting the role of Charlie Hughes, the bored desk clerk for whom O’Neill has written so many fantastic thoughts, I had an image inspired by my thoughts of the time in American history that this play is set in.  I do not know of any production of Hughie that has an  African Canadian/American in the role, and for me this idea gave impulse to thinking through the historical context of the black citizen’s role in the changing NYC and America.  I wanted the possibility of seeing in the relationship between Erie and Charlie, something more profound that would evolve in interracial relationships.  Dean Ifill is an actor I worked with some years ago who has been away from the stage for awhile, but one with a gigantic social consciousness and with whom I knew I would get the ideas I was seeking to examine.

This particular piece is one of Eugene O'Neill's lesser known works, why do you think it isn't produced very often and why are you doing it now?

It is produced with another short play from time to time, but clearly a 46 minute play is hard to sell on its own.  We have added some lovely framing in terms of context with live music and a composition for the piece, and I have been very presumptuous in writing a small prologue that the piano player speaks.  We also have a video installation in the public washrooms and we have tried to turn the whole space into a fallen down hotel lobby.  I do think the play is very specifically of NYC in its time, but the context in which it sits is very close to today too, with banks about to fail and corruption in the government and stock market challenges. So I think it’s a good fit for our time and an important historical examination.

Finally, what would you say to encourage a younger audience to come out and see this production?

Well it is compelling and strong theatre and has hot music and  a hot young trumpet player! And it’s about people caught in a world that is making less and less sense – they are terribly lonely and reaching out to find friendship in each other, a very unlikely friendship that is based on that need for connection.  Surely that theme is one that is understandable and relatable by generations X, Y and Global Z?  Plus it’s only an hour long, so you can see it and hit the bars and restaurants after.

When and Where?

Hughie

The Theatre Centre: 100-1087 Queen St W

February 8^th through March 3^rd

Tickets can be purchased in person at the box office or by phone at 416-538-0988