Previews: Tracy Letts’ THE MINUTES to Have Regional Premiere at Stray Dog Theatre

One of the most anticipated shows this fall is the regional premiere of Tracy Letts’ The Minutes at Stray Dog Theatre. The Minutes allows the audience to eavesdrop on a closed session of a small-town city council meeting. Hypocrisy and greed are exposed during the 90-minutes council meeting in the fictional town of Big Cherry. Broadway World had the opportunity to sit down with director Justin Been and St. Louis Theater Circle Award winner Stephen Peirick to talk about The Minutes.

Been and Peirick call the minutes part comedy, part drama. “It is both. It leans comedy for most of the show and then it takes a turn. It presents a lot of interesting things to think about near the end of the show,” says Been.

Peirick agrees with Been’s take. “There is bit of satire, and a little bit of mystery mixed in with the comedy.” He continued, “It’s such a well written show. I’m a big fan of Tracy Letts’ writing. The construction of this show is pretty genius.”Actor Stephen Peirick plays Mr. Carp in The Minutes.

They talked about how The Minutes is structured in real time. “It is 90-minutes of a city council meeting in an imaginary town. It unfolds in real time and the audience watches as the close session takes place,” Peirick told Broadway World.

“So, you’re getting a behind the curtain view,” says Been. “Time and space are real. Very few characters leave the stage. What the audience experiences feel very real.”

In an article on theumbrellaarts.com, Tracy Letts says he wrote The Minutes in 2016 but that his work isn’t about that Presidential election. He calls it non-partisan and says that it examines a particular point in history and how we got to this place. In the same article, Lett’s says, “People have pretty hearty disagreements about what they’ve seen or whether they like what they’ve seen. I want to write a play that engenders discussion and argument rather than a play that is easily tied up and dismissed.”

Been echoed Letts’ description of The Minutes, “That will one-hundred percent be this show. I’ll be excited to see people’s reaction to this show and what they will want to discuss afterwards.” He shared that when he and Stray Dog Theatre’s artistic director Gary Bell pick scripts 18-months in advance. He says that they couldn’t have predicted how relevant The Minutes would be today. “The topics are way more important than when we picked the show,” Been said.

Peirick says, “That’s a great summary of this piece and the politics at this moment in time. There is a lot of fun in this show, but it also looks at small-town politics and reflects the bigger picture and where we are today.” 

According to Been this is an ensemble piece. He shared that while some characters roles are more line heavy, the actors’ presence and their reactions are all important parts of the storytelling. He said, “Overall, it is about the whole more than one specific individual.”

Peirick hesitated when he started to discuss his character, Mr. Carp. “I don’t want to say too much because Mr. Carp is mysteriously absent at the beginning of the city council meeting.” He shared that it is exciting as an actor to have to understand the characters interpersonal relationships and their relationship histories. Peirick says that there is a lot of critically important non-verbal communication that occurs through glances and looks.

Both men think that The Minutes is a great escape and relevant to the times we are living in today. Peirick says, “You won’t be able to stop talking about this play after you’ve seen it and that is the mark exceptional theater.”