INTERVIEW: Characters vie to be ‘King’ in Liars & Believers show of tragedy, buffoonery

Liars & Believers (LAB), a theatrical company based out of Massachusetts, has a few simple phrases that pop off its website. One of them seems to sum up their artistic ambitions: “Wanna play?”

Audience members are invited to answer that question at LAB’s new show, Who Would Be King, which begins performances Thursday, March 16 at New York City’s Ars Nova. The production, which features kings, villains, angels and chickens, is an irreverent meditation on power and professional ascendancy, featuring clowning, physical theater, swordplay and a live synthwave score.

Jason Slavick, artistic director of LAB, conceived and directed the piece, which serves as a continuation of the company’s exploration of exciting kinetic energy.

“We lean on physical theater and playfulness and visual impact to make a really thrilling, exciting experience,” Slavick said recently in a phone interview. “We mix the low and the high, so we use silly base comedy and then smack that right up against, I hope, the profound. At least that’s what we’re striving for — certainly the dramatic and the serious. And then we throw in with that live original music, so really we try to create an experience that is multi-sensory and thrilling and thought-provoking at the same time.”

The show has been in development for a long time. The original idea came in July of 2014. As Slavick said, that’s when the “percolating” began. The company began collaboratively digging into source material and growing the piece, and the current cast has been together since January of 2015.

“We work together in a collaborative manner using guided improvisation of all different kinds in a series of workshops,” he said. “We tend to work three weeks at a time exploring different ideas, trying them out in scenes and different orders. … I create exercises that the actors play out, and then we review what we did. And we discuss it, and then we take a break from the workshop and bring it all together into a script form. Then we go back, and we try that out, again repeat the process. We try things out. We experiment. We throw a lot out, and then that ends up with a new script. And we reiterate and reiterate and reiterate.”

The show premiered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in November of 2015, and then there was a Philadelphia engagement in 2016. The Ars Nova run will be different than the previous incarnations because LAB’s development never truly stops. The ensemble will tweak and reform as the show evolves from space to space.

“It doesn’t feel like it’s the end of a long journey,” Slavick said. “It feels like the next step on a very long journey. … I think as an artist, as long as you stay connected to the piece and your eyes are still open and you’re still in touch with it, the amount you change gets smaller and smaller, but all along the way, it’s a live, breathing thing. And we discover new things, and we learn, oh, that character doesn’t quite hit the note we want to hit. Or, that scene isn’t quite resonating, so let me go back. And we look at it, and we tweak a thing. And we go, oh, let’s just adjust these lines here, or a reference we’re making that made sense a year and a half ago now is old and doesn’t make sense. Or, it’s been eclipsed by something more important, so I feel like this is just the next step on an ongoing journey.”

The show, which runs 90 minutes and completes its run April 1, is exhausting for the performers. Slavick jokingly promises them that each new iteration of Who Would Be King will be easier than the last one, but that hasn’t proved to be accurate.

“They are moving nonstop, and they are climbing on each other and lifting each other and falling,” he said. “Then you get into extended sword fights, and the swords are heavy after a while. The clowning itself is pretty intense because clowning is a real physical experience, so even if you’re not getting into jumping on each other and lifting each other, etc., there’s just a finely tuned precision to it that is physical.”

One positive (perhaps) is that Ars Nova’s ceiling is lower than other theaters that Who Would Be King has been performed in, so the climbing to the top is not quite as death-defying.

There’s also a dance element to the show, which features five actors and one musician. The ensemble is on stage for almost the entire 90-minute duration, although the performers relish their two-minute rests when other characters are having an intimate scene on stage.

“As we are rehearsing, we continue looking at things,” Slavick said. “Right now, we are in a precision remount mode to bring it down to New York, and there’s a little bit of adjusting because the venue is a different venue. So we have to change our entrances and exits and things like that, but fundamentally it’s remount mode.”

In the retooling, Slavick and the ensemble actually cut a character, which meant one actor was out of a particular scene. What’s interesting is that a relatively minor edit like cutting a supporting character can have reverberations throughout the piece. A deleted character means different timed entrances and perhaps a strengthening of a relationship of two other characters.

“I think it’s important when you’re developing new work to keep your eyes open and to keep listening to the piece to take nothing for granted but just keep working on it,” he said. “I think it’s important that we continue to explore and create, ask questions and discover as we go. The payoff is the work gets deeper and deeper. … The whole ensemble has been together for two-and-a-half years. They created this work, and they continued creating this work. And so they know each other really well. They know their characters really well. They know the story really well, and that brings depth scene by scene and moment by moment, and brings depth and precision to their relationships with one another. That comes from being alive and keeping the active process alive.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Liars & Believers will present Who Would Be King at Ars Nova in New York City March 16 to April 1. Click here for more information and tickets.