The actor will perform the acclaimed monologue across 19 shows at New York City’s Studio Seaview from Oct. 16 through Oct. 30
Credit: Dominik Bindl/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- Andrew Scott will return to Simon Stephens’ Sea Wall, 18 years after originating the one-man play written specifically for him
- The actor will perform the acclaimed monologue across 19 shows at New York City’s Studio Seaview from Oct. 16 through Oct. 30
- Directed by Tina Satter, the first-of-its-kind feature film will capture the performance, backstage action and live audience throughout the run
Andrew Scott is returning to a role that has followed him for nearly two decades.
The Fleabag star and Olivier Award-winning actor, 49, will once again take on Sea Wall, Simon Stephens’ acclaimed one-man play that was originally written for Scott nearly two decades ago.
Scott first performed the piece in London in 2008. Now, 18 years later, he’ll take monologue to New York City — this time for a first-of-its-kind feature film shot across 19 performances in front of a live audience.
Directed by Peabody Award winner Tina Satter, the production will be captured at Studio Seaview from Oct. 16 through Oct. 30.
The roughly 30-minute monologue follows Alex, a photographer whose seemingly idyllic life with his wife and young daughter is shattered by an unimaginable loss. Speaking conversationally about his family, his work and questions of faith, he gradually reveals the tragedy that left him struggling to make sense of a life suddenly upended.
Credit: Sea Wall
Scott’s history with Sea Wall began under unusual circumstances.
In 2008, water leaks at London’s Bush Theatre left its lighting grid unsafe, prompting then-artistic director Josie Rourke to launch the Broken Space Season: a collection of newly commissioned short plays that could be staged with minimal technical requirements.
Stephens was given just three weeks to write his contribution and was vacationing with his wife, children and father-in-law in France when he began working on it. Elements of that trip — including its setting and family relationships — ultimately found their way into Alex’s story.
Later that year, Scott debuted Sea Wall at the Bush under the direction of George Perrin, beginning an association with the play that would continue long after its original run. He brought the monologue to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2009 and later performed it at the National Theatre’s temporary Shed space in London in 2013 and Dublin’s Project Arts Centre in 2015.
In 2018, Scott returned to Sea Wall once again for a two-week engagement at the Old Vic marking the London theater’s 200th anniversary. “Sea Wall is a stunning piece of writing,” Scott said at the time, expressing his hope that audiences would “love the play as much as I do.”
Sea Wall has been put on film before. In 2011, Scott and Stephens made a deliberately stripped-down version of the show, directed by Stephens and Andrew Porter, that preserved the intimacy of the stage production by placing Scott largely alone in an empty rehearsal space.
This time, however, the camera won’t only be trained on Scott.
Satter’s new feature is being conceived as a film about the creation of theater itself. In addition to Scott’s performance, cameras will capture what happens backstage, onstage and throughout the house, with the audience at each of the 19 performances serving as what the production calls an “essential character” in the finished movie.
It’s an approach particularly suited to a play whose power has always rested on the intimacy between its sole performer and the people listening to him.
Credit: Richard Hubert Smith
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And while Scott has remained closely associated with Sea Wall, he isn’t the only actor to have taken on Alex. The play made its way to New York in 2019 with Tom Sturridge in the role as part of Sea Wall/A Life, a double bill that paired Stephens’ monologue with Nick Payne’s A Life, performed by Jake Gyllenhaal.
The production, directed by Carrie Cracknell, began at the Public Theater before transferring to Broadway’s Hudson Theatre that summer. It ultimately earned four Tony Award nominations, including Best Play and leading actor nominations for both Sturridge and Gyllenhaal.
For the new Sea Wall, Satter will be joined by lighting designer Isabella Byrd and sound designer Ben Williams. Paul Yee will serve as director of photography for the film, with Parker Lutz advising on production design.
Release details for the finished feature film to be announced at a later date..
Tickets for Sea Wall are on stage now.
Read the full article here
