INTERVIEW: New play looks at three Marcs and one Venice
Photo: From left, Kevin McDowell Stevens, Howard Collado, and Colin Colford star in Marc in Venice. Photo courtesy of Mark Erson / Provided by Coyle Entertainment with permission.
Marc in Venice, the new play written and directed by Mark Erson, takes a look at the world-famous Italian city and how it has impacted the lives of three men named Marc. In the first century, there’s the gospel writer named Marcus, while in the 13th century, there’s the adventurer Marco Polo. In modern times, Marc is an American college graduate who meets and falls for Angelo, a local restaurateur.
“It’s been a long project off and on,” Erson said in a recent phone interview. “The first nugget of an idea came when I visited Venice the first time, which was I think 2002 or 2003. I was on my way to the Edinburgh Fringe. I worked there for about nine summers, and each year I’d go over and do some traveling before, settling down into the work at the Fringe. And I was over in Venice, and I kind of always had a romantic image of Venice. And it didn’t fail. I got there, and I ended up extending a three-day visit into a six-day visit.”
Marc in Venice is not autobiographical (Erson admitted he would still be living in Venice if it were), but the inspiration to tell these three interwoven stories was certainly gathered from the inspiration he felt pulsating from the canals, gondolas, architecture, art and history of this unforgettable seaside city.
“Somebody said, ‘Where did you get this idea,'” he said. “It kind of just was. It formulated as I was there, and the story itself took a lot of different forms as I was working it out. And then I returned to Venice in 2012 as part of my honeymoon trip with my husband, and that kind of reignited my desire to get this play finished. So that helped a lot, and then we got to do some readings. And there was a lot of enthusiasm for it, so I kept moving forward with it.”
Now Marc of Venice is receiving its world premiere at the Theatre at St. John’s on Christopher Street in the West Village of New York City. The production, which runs through Oct. 18, is meant to coincide with Coming Out Day Oct. 11 and the theater’s series of plays honoring the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising.
For Erson, there’s a lot to love about Venice, but it is the unique history that truly won him over.
“My undergrad was in history, and so certainly the history of it and because there’s so many buildings that have been around for a long time,” he said. “You walk around and realize the centuries of people that have been walking these streets. … I’ve always loved the sea anyway, so the idea of a city dedicated to boat travel as opposed to walking and cars is the whole package kind of thing.”
To research the Marco Polo part of the play, Erson read The Travels of Marco Polo, which is actually featured in the show. Plus, he and his husband traveled to Montreal and caught an exhibit about the adventurer, which provided further inspiration.
“That was very helpful,” the writer-director said. “Sometimes I don’t always get everything out of what I’m reading, so it was really great to have this exhibit. That proved really, really helpful, and then there was some other research I did. There was a wonderful book about the literary Venice, and it took you on walking tours and highlighted different elements of the literary history. And so that was some research that also informed some of the play, so that was helpful. Then, I had never heard until I got to Venice the whole legend that St. Mark, the writer of the gospel, was there before the city was there, and so suddenly that became a very interesting story to me to include.”
The 21st century Marc is a modern look at relationships and identity. For this part, the playwright didn’t want to be preachy or fall into easy clichés.
“By writing it as I did, I was able to lift up a story to understand one’s own sexuality to be on the same level as the struggle that one goes through in terms of how are they going to live out their faith,” Erson said. “In the same way, for Marco Polo, it’s just speaking the truth that he’s discovered, and in subtle ways, the stories end up commenting on one another just by living in the same space as opposed to directly commenting.”
And now audiences have a chance to travel to Venice through Erson’s inspiration.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Marc in Venice, written and directed by Mark Erson, plays through Oct. 18 at the Theatre at St. John’s in the West Village of New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
