INTERVIEW: This Martin Moran play is ‘All the Rage’
Photo: All the Rage, written by and starring Martin Moran, plays The Barrow Group in an encore presentation. Photo courtesy of Joan Marcus / Provided by Everyman Agency with permission.
Sometimes it seems that people can be compassionate and kind, and then within seconds those same people can be cruel and hurtful. This dichotomy, which is a hallmark of the human species, fascinates (and haunts) playwright and performer Martin Moran, and he has channeled his creative energies to better understand this expansive topic. The resulting piece of theater is called All the Rage, playing through Oct. 5 at The Barrow Group.
This is actually the second time that New Yorkers will have a chance to catch All the Rage, which is directed by Seth Barrish. The play premiered back in 2013 and won Moran Outstanding Solo Show at the Lucille Lortel Awards.
To understand the nature of rage, Moran does some soul-searching and explores different chapters and events in his own life, including a crime he experienced as a boy. The answers to some of these large, existential questions has driven Moran to travel the world and take part in various experiences, whether it’s encountering his stepmother in Colorado or getting lost in South Africa.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Moran about the encore presentation of All the Rage. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What initially inspired you to put pen to paper and create All the Rage?
Putting pen to paper seems to arrive for me as an imperative. A command from within to answer a tricky question, or follow an impossible inquiry. All The Rage arose directly from a question I was often asked after I published my first memoir and solo play, The Tricky Part. ‘Where is your anger,’ people would often say, with a troubled brow. And suddenly the question troubled me deeply and eluded a simple answer. Down went the pen, and a new play emerged.
Are the stories in the piece 100% true, or is there some creative license employed?
All The Rage is a work of nonfiction. It is also the work of dreams and memory. What is ever 100 percent true when funneled through the soul and experience of a single human being? I will say, that I feel a great devotion, a vow, to get at the Truth. But all of it, living and dying and memory and storytelling, is suffused with mystery. Is it not?
That being said, the stories woven in this play are absolutely from my lived life. I have changed some names out of respect for others’ privacy. But the attempt to communicate honestly, to relay truth, is central to my work.
Does the central question of how people can show compassion and then show violent rage still confound you?
The dance of compassion and anger doesn’t so much confound as amaze me. We humans are graced with consciousness. Whatever exactly that is. But nonetheless, we are graced with the capacity to grow in awareness of the divine nature of our existence and our connectedness. We share this breathing, vibrant planet. All 7 billion of us. We are made of earth, of stardust. The amazing thing it seems is our waking to the constant invitation to remember, even as we continue to reject and hurt and kill and judge one another, that we are bound by love.
Does performing the show help you process these difficult truths? Is it therapeutic?
Writing and performing has always helped me to find out what I think and feel. In that way, I guess it has always been a therapeutic process, yes. If I hadn’t found a voice, be it expressed through song or with pen or placard, I simply would not have survived to this ripe age of 60. I guess you could say that’s successful therapy.
Why did you feel it was important to bring the piece back to New York City audiences?
Seth Barrish and Lee Brock, the founders and co-artistic directors of TBG, and I have been talking non-stop — as have many — of the toxic and divisive state we find ourselves in as a country. As a world. The growing nationalism and raging xenophobia. They felt an urgent call, as did I, to revive this piece of theater that speaks directly to issues of immigration and of waking to and remembering our fundamental oneness as a human family.
What’s it like working with director Seth Barrish?
Working with Seth Barrish is like encountering Buddha disguised as a soft-spoken but fierce middle-aged Jewish guy, who cares passionately about mending the world through story.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
All the Rage, by Martin Moran, runs through Oct. 5 at The Barrow Group in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
