INTERVIEW: In new play, Hannah Blake would like to confess her secrets
Photo: Giselle Chatelain and Maggie McMuffin star in The Cruelty-Free Confessions of Hannah Blake at UNDER St Marks. Photo courtesy of the production / Provided with permission.
New York City Fringe is ready to descend upon the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and that means UNDER St. Marks and other theaters in the local area will be packed with edgy indie theater that will have audiences laughing, thinking and engaging with important issues of the day. One of the entries this year is called The Cruelty-Free Confessions of Hannah Blake, a new play written by Oliver Britten and directed by Alexander Arturo Garcia.
The show, which runs April 2-20, features the acting talents of Maggie McMuffin and Giselle Chatelain. Press notes indicate that the play surrounds Hannah Blake, who is a vegan chef ready to offer a cooking demo to the audience. But deep down Hannah also has a fear that her daughter will follow in her footsteps: not as a vegan chef, but as a serial killer. That’s right, Hannah has some secrets to tell.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Britten about the play, which first premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Britten is the writer and director of three short films and the co-writer of a comedy feature film. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What inspired the creation of this play? What did day one look like?
The early days of COVID were the primary inspiration for this play. Originally, I wanted to make a low-budget one-location film while I was stuck at home during that time, but that idea changed as I became more interested in the theater world. The importance of in-person entertainment and a shared group experience was what inspired the early story idea for Hannah Blake. Day one of that process was mostly figuring out how I can isolate the character to one location and how to make her compelling. My mom is a fantastic cook, so I’m sure, subconsciously, that inspired Hannah, but thankfully, she is nothing like Hannah.
How would you describe the character of Hannah Blake?
Hannah Blake is a tormented soul wearing a false mask of happiness. She presents herself as a cozy stay-at-home wife with a loving family, but beneath that, she is longing to feel connected to anything. Her immoral behavior does not come from a background of trauma. She wasn’t abused growing up. She loves her daughter, and her husband is a good man at heart. Despite this image of domestic bliss she presents to the world, Hannah is lost and does not know herself.
I take it that most of the action is meant to be tongue in cheek, but during the writing phase, how do you know lines will be funny without having an audience present?
Yes, there is definitely a dark tongue-in-cheek vibe to the show. It was difficult to know what would work comedy-wise. When writing solo, my tactic with the comedy was to push it as far as I could think of into twisted territory, then gradually rein myself in until I find the right tone. There were a lot of lines that were cut because they were just unnecessary, and for me, they became tasteless. Alex helped a lot there with figuring out how dark we could make this before it became off-putting.
How did the Edinburgh Festival Fringe go?
Edinburgh Fringe was wonderful and chaotic. I had never been there before, but I had heard stories about it since I was a kid. My dad went there with shows in the ’80s, so I grew up hearing about how crazy and incredible it was. Our show at Edinburgh was quite different. We had a brilliant actor, Sarah J. Bartholomew, playing all the characters. She played Hannah and the ghosts of her victims, jumping back and forth between them. This time for NYC Fringe, we have two fantastic actors, Giselle Chatelain and Maggie McMuffin. That will create a very different energy and dynamic to Edinburgh.
What’s it like working with director and producer Alexander Arturo Garcia?
Alex Garcia and I have been friends for quite a few years, so we are usually on the same wavelength creatively. He brings a different energy to the production than I did with Hannah at Edinburgh. My approach before was a more literal interpretation of the material since we did not have as much time to give the show more flair. Alex has worked on way more productions than I, so he knows how to elevate the material to add cinematic touches and his own comedic sensibility. We both have an off-the-wall sense of humor, so working with him as a producer and director has been a seamless process. And he is great at connecting us with talent and crew who have all been great at bringing the show to life. I wouldn’t have known any of them without his contacts.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Cruelty-Free Confessions of Hannah Blake, written by Oliver Britten, plays April 2-20 at UNDER St. Marks as part of New York City Fringe. Click here for more information and tickets.
