INTERVIEW: ‘Dirty Laundry’ holds microscope to the grieving process
Photo: Dirty Laundry features Constance Shulman in the role of Another Woman. Photo courtesy of Valeria Terranova / Provided by official site.
Mathilde Dratwa’s new play, Dirty Laundry, is a complex, almost surreal study of how grief can impact a group of people. Playing at the Women’s Project Theater in Midtown Manhattan through Oct. 20, the show follows three characters as they try to figure out their individual lives after the woman who brought them together has died. While they struggle and grapple, there’s a chorus of voices that surround them, asking them questions about life, death and everything in between.
Constance Shulman, an accomplished actor who has appeared in many stage productions, plays the role of “Another Woman.” She is joined in the WP Theater production by Mary Bacon, Sasha Diamond, Amy Jo Jackson, Richard Masur and Lakisha May, while Rebecca Martinez directs.
“It’s a tricky play, and tricky plays equal tricky rehearsals,” Shulman said in a recent phone interview. “It’s kind of like a symphony, a musical, even though it’s not a musical, but there are a lot of components to the play that feel like an orchestra. They all have to sort of work in harmony, and it takes a while to get there because there is a very naturalistic, realistic story told in a stylized way. Half of it is very stylized, and half of it is pretty naturalistic. And just sort of finding the way that those two components work in sync with each other is very challenging.”
Shulman, who has appeared in The Best We Could and The Rose Tattoo, said the narrative unfolds in a nonlinear way. She kept the secrets of the piece hidden so as not to spoil their impact on the audience, but the actor did allow that Dirty Laundry features time travel and “voices in the characters’ heads.” She called the voices “very true to life” because there’s constantly chatter in one’s head as one deals with the big questions of life and death.
“And Mathilde has put that into her play as this character dealing with grief and all the voices that pop up as you are trying to process a loss, and so that’s what’s going on the stage at the Women’s Project,” she said. “Previews are really a time to rehearse in front of an audience. You start to understand the storytelling in front of an audience because they’re the people that are going to tell you if something is clear, if something is not clear, this is funny, this is upsetting. You can’t really tell what the impact of what you’ve been rehearsing is until you’ve got that other character sitting there and has paid to see you stumble. [laughs]”
Shulman, whose TV work includes The Curse and Orange Is the New Black, had done a reading of Dirty Laundry before signing up for the fully realized production. She said there was a necessary leap of faith and a trust factor that needed to be achieved with her fellow actors and the creatives.
“You don’t know the people,” Shulman said. “You sometimes don’t know the director, and all you know is what your own take on what you read is. Then you get in the room, and like anything when you’re working with a group of people, everybody has their take on something. Luckily you have a director that puts all those different points of view together and creates something very exciting, and I think Mathilde has written a very impactful piece that will affect people deeply. Grief is something we all experience, and putting that on stage in a way where there is humor involved, there’s relatability and a lot of soul-searching, it is very exciting.”
Shulman added this about depicting the grieving process on stage: “It makes you feel less alone. I know in psychology, there are all those stages of grief that we all go through and that seem pretty clinical. I think artists, part of their responsibility is bringing those to life so communication can begin, and conversations about what they’ve just experienced and sharing the stories make you feel less alone. And to me that’s the #1 way to proceed through grief is to know that your experience has been shared by all of us.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Dirty Laundry, featuring Constance Shulman, continues at the WP Theater in Midtown Manhattan through Oct. 20. Click here for more information and tickets.
