INTERVIEW: The secrets behind Broadway’s ‘Is This A Room’ — with no redactions
Is This A Room stars, from left, Will Cobbs, Pete Simpson and Emily Davis. Photo courtesy of Chad Batka / Provided by Matt Ross PR with permission.
Broadway has seen the opening of many new plays over the past few weeks, with several of them featuring unique structures and groundbreaking theatrical stagings. One of the most heralded of the new offerings is Is This A Room, conceived and directed by Tina Satter. The show, a transfer from off-Broadway’s Vineyard Theatre, is now playing at the Lyceum Theatre in repertory with Dana H. through the end of Thanksgiving week.
In Is This A Room, audiences watch a transcript from an FBI interrogation come to life. There is no traditional, hand-written dialogue; instead, every word and every cough comes from the real life transcript. Here’s the premise: It’s 2017, and former Air Force intelligence specialist Reality Winner (Emily Davis, of TV’s Rust) is surprised at her home by FBI officials who question her about some decisions she made in the past. Becca Blackwell plays Unknown Male, and Will Cobbs portrays FBI Agent Taylor. Pete Simpson is Agent Garrick.
What this quartet of actors is able to achieve is nothing short of remarkable. Over the course of 70 minutes they bring theatergoers on a journey of uncertainty, of dark humor, of secrets and lies, of serious events of great import. All of it is true, all of it playing out exactly as it did in 2017. There’s documentary theater, and then there’s Is This A Room, which ups the ante on how the real world can impact the world beneath the proscenium.
The only thing missing from Satter’s production are redacted sections of the FBI transcript, which can leave the audience pondering what was actually said and what may be missing from the theatrical performance.
Cobbs is best known for TV’s For Life and Prodigal Son. His regional theater credits include Arena Theater’s A Raisin in the Sun, McCarter Theater’s Detroit ’67 and The Resident Ensemble Players’ Fences. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Cobbs about his role in Is This A Room. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What attracted you to the role of Agent Taylor and this show?
What I like about this show most is what it requires technically. From start to finish it’s a tight piece of choreography with no space to relax or tune out. This show is a pressure cooker, and I was excited to take on its challenges.
How does bringing to life a real interrogation / transcript change your performance? Do you approach it the same way you would a traditional script?
I wouldn’t say that the approach is different as much the work requires different things. In a traditional play the playwright is at the center of it all and gives so much to the actors. In this play, we are free to create our characters based on what they did and said in these very specific and real moments. There’s a whole lot of space for creativity and storytelling within the rigidity of a verbatim transcript.
How faithful are you to that transcript? Word for word? Cough for cough?
The goal is always to be word perfect, no matter the play.
Have you thought about what words and phrases are redacted? Do you have to play the character as if you had that knowledge?
I definitely play the character as if I had the knowledge. As an actor, I just make some personal choices so that there is life in the redaction moments.
Do you feel Broadway is opening up more to edgier, risk-taking plays like this one?
I hope so.
What’s it like to work with this ensemble?
Working with this group of actors has been a daily master class. They are all fantastic performers, and I feel like I’ll be picking apart moments that my castmates created for years to come. And they were also some of the most supportive and gracious coworkers I’ve ever had. I’m gonna miss playing with them.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Is This A Room, featuring Will Cobbs, is currently playing at the Lyceum Theatre on Broadway. Click here for more information and tickets.
