INTERVIEW: Jeff Tabnick’s ‘Intimacy Effect’ to play Brooklyn
Family relationships, infidelity and marital doubt are explored in the new play from playwright Jeff Tabnick. The Intimacy Effect, which begins performances Thursday, Sept. 28 at Vital Joint in Brooklyn, New York, will put this drama on full display for audience members, and Tabnick believes it will prove quite topical.
The 80-minute play, directed by Eric Nightengale, stars James Ball, Sarah Doudna, Jennifer O’Donnell, Richard Lovejoy and Ruth Nightengale. They portray characters brought together in a small apartment who need to deal with their shared history and current-day allegations.
Recently, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Tabnick about The Intimacy Effect, which is presented by Title Point and Propinquity. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can audience members expect with The Intimacy Effect?
As audience members walk down the steps into the theater, they’ll feel as if they’re entering the small apartment the play takes place in. They’ll get to eavesdrop on two couples as they grapple with infidelity, sexual consent and raising children. At the center of the play is a story Matt, a stay-at-home dad, tells about a pregnant woman who showed up at their apartment the day before. This woman raised some serious allegations against Matt. And even though those allegations might not be true, they’ve forced Matt’s wife to face doubts that she already had about Matt’s behavior as a parent and as a role model to their young daughter.
I think the play explores how we look at our partners differently once we have children. The play also investigates the bleed between our current political situation and our personal lives. I hope that the play raises questions about how the problems we’re facing as a country are entangled with the problems we’re facing in the privacy of our own homes.
How long has the play been in development? Has it changed a lot since the early drafts?
This version of the play has been in development for about a year. I worked on it with my writer’s group, The Pool, and at The Blank Theater in Hollywood. But I did write a very different version of this play about four years ago — that play was a lot funnier. As the play gestated though, I started to rethink the central situation and decided that I shouldn’t be treating it so lightly. The play still has funny moments, but its dark underbelly is now front and center.
What’s it like to work with director Eric Nightengale?
I’m very lucky to be working with director Eric Nightengale. He’s all about exploration. No idea is set in stone. And I love that. We’ve been fortunate enough to have had two workshop periods at Vital Joint, and that really allowed us to experiment both in rehearsal and in front of very generous audiences. We’ve made huge shifts in tone and emphasis during this process, and Eric is always game for that. Also, sometimes characters in the play speak internally, but these internal thoughts are sometimes ‘heard’ by other characters. Only Eric could find a way to make that work.
Did the play’s characters come first, or did you envision the plot/story first?
The central character came first. A guy who is well meaning and loves being a dad but also has a real temper that he has to contend with. And from there I started to think about other impulses that people have to control in order to be in a healthy relationship and have children. And I asked myself how much of our impulses should we cut ourselves off from as we get older. And the rest of the play came from that question.
When did you know you wanted to write plays professionally? When did it become serious for you?
My ambitions to write plays have been with me for as long as l can remember, and it’s always been a serious pursuit. Although there have been moments this month as we rehearse the same 80 minutes of a made up person’s life over and over again, where I think to myself, this is a kind of insanity.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
The Intimacy Effect begins performances Thursday, Sept. 28 and runs through Oct. 14 at Vital Joint, 109 Meserole St. in Brooklyn, New York. Click here for more information and tickets.
