Written by Ben Woolf Edited by Sam Maynard and Katherine Igoe-Ewer Rehearsal and Production Photography by Johan Persson CONTENTS BACKGROUNDPRODUCTIONRESOURCES Contents Introduction 3 Section 1: Background to CLOSER 4 CLOSER: An introduction 5 Characters 6 CLOSER in Context 10 Section 2: The Donmar’s Production 15 Cast and Creative Team 16 Rehearsal Diaries 17 An Interview with Playwright Patrick Marber 21 An Interview with the Cast of CLOSER 26 Section 3: Resources 30 Spotlight on Deborah Andrews, Costume Supervisor 31 Workshop Exercises 35 Bibliography 39 2 CONTENTS BACKGROUNDPRODUCTIONRESOURCES Introduction Welcome to this Behind the Scenes Guide to the Donmar Warehouse production of Patrick Marber’s CLOSER, directed by David Leveaux. The following pages contain an exclusive insight into the process of bringing this production from page to stage. Written by playwright and director Patrick Marber, CLOSER was critically acclaimed when it premiered at the National Theatre in 1997, winning Olivier, Evening Standard and New York Drama Critic’s Circle Awards. It has since been produced in the West End, Broadway, around the world and adapted into an international movie. This is its first major London revival. This guide aims to set the play and the production in context. It includes conversations with Patrick Marber and the cast who bring the characters to life. There are also extracts from Resident Assistant Director Zoé Ford’s rehearsal diary and practical exercises designed for use in the classroom. The guide has a particular focus on costume and includes a conversation with Deborah Andrews, the production’s costume supervisor, whose role is crucial in finding the right look for each character. We hope you find this guide interesting and informative. To view the Behind the Scenes Guides for other productions please visit www.donmarwarehouse.com/discover/resources The cast of CLOSER and Director, David Leveaux 3 Section 1: Background to CLOSER Nancy Carroll 4 CONTENTS BACKGROUNDPRODUCTIONRESOURCES CLOSER: An introduction ‘I believe a play should be whatever someone makes of it on the night. It is ephemeral. I’m always nervous about making pronouncements as a playwright because what I have to say about the play is the play. I can tell you when I wrote it. But I can’t tell you why. It’s mysterious to me. And I quite like that.’ Patrick Marber CLOSER follows four characters in contemporary London as their romantic lives intertwine. Each of the characters pursues their own desires, and discovers what happens when these wants come into contact with those of the other characters. The play is set in London over a period of four years. It dramatically explores complex themes of sexual desire, jealousy and betrayal. More than anything, though, CLOSER is a play about its characters – Dan, Alice, Larry and Anna – and what they do to each other. We learn their most intimate thoughts and secrets but at the same time, almost nothing about their lives beyond the time we spend with them. What little biographical information there is lies scattered throughout the play, with truth and lies often imperceptible from one another. CLOSER is not an academic or polemic text. It’s a tightly written story about these characters and their specific experiences – told from their unique perspectives. Director, David Leveaux 5 CONTENTS BACKGROUNDPRODUCTIONRESOURCES Characters ALICE – Rachel Redford ‘Men want a girl who looks like a boy. They want to protect her but she must be a survivor. And she must come... like a train... but with... elegance.’ Alice Ayres – Act 1, Scene 1 Alice meets Dan on Blackfriars Bridge after she is hit by a taxi. She has been out clubbing and carries, it seems, all her worldly possessions with her in a rucksack. She is, she says, ‘a waif’. Alice gives us a few tantalising – and conflicting – facts about her life. She has been working as a stripper in New York. Her parents apparently died in a car accident. And, on her leg, she carries a distinctive scar, shaped like a question mark. ‘As an audience, we are never quite sure if Alice has in fact told the truth about anything with regards to the events in her life. Her character is constantly evolving throughout the play; her only Zoé Ford, fixed characteristic being the scar on her leg. It is interesting to Resident Assistant Director note, however, that even this becomes a symbol of reinvention, as she provides several different explanations of how and when she received it. The explanation given is always that which will have the greatest effect on that specific listener, in that specific situation. She uses it at different moments to provoke either sympathy, interest or desire; it is a tool used to intensify her relationship with other people.’ Although Alice might be seen to be passive – she says to Dan, ‘I never look where I’m going.’ – she is not, perhaps, always to be taken at face value. It’s interesting to consider the degree to which she is skillful at manipulating perceptions of her. ‘I hope people at my age will relate to Alice. Because 24 is a strange, kind of annoying, age. You’re not young enough to be young. But you’re not old enough to be older. You’re only partly an adult. You’re kind of caught in the middle.’ Rachel Redford POST SHOW ‘She seems very open to me… DISCUSSION That’s how she wants to seem.’ POINT Anna and Larry on Alice We learn some important biographical information about Alice in the final scene. Should this retrospectively change the way we think of her character in the previous scenes? When is she at her most truthful? 6 CONTENTS BACKGROUNDPRODUCTIONRESOURCES DAN – Oliver Chris ‘I’m a... sort of journalist.’ Dan – Act 1, Scene 1 Of all four characters we can glean the most categorical backstory about Dan. We learn that he is from the suburbs, that his mother is dead and his father is in a care home. At the beginning of the play he is in a relationship with Ruth, a linguist, who we never meet. Dan works as an obituary columnist. He says, ‘I had dreams of being a writer but I had no voice. What am I saying? I had no talent.’ ‘Dan is a complex, dichotomous character – he waxes lyrical about beauty, love and life but in the end love ‘disappoints’ him. He wants to be a writer but ‘doesn’t have a subject.’ He writes Zoé Ford, a novel, but it is about Alice’s life, not from his own inspired Resident Assistant Director imagination. Even Alice questions: ‘do you have a single original thought in your head?’ He has a lot of ‘grand artistic feelings’ but they always fall short. He is constantly disappointed because he refuses to concede his imagined life for reality.’ Dan’s pursuit of romantic fulfillment propels the plot of CLOSER. He meets and, in turn, seduces each of the characters. It is Dan who, inadvertently, brings them to each other. ‘Dan is just a terrible romantic. He’s completely in the sway of love and jealousy and self-destruction. He can’t get the better of his inability not to love people and it leads him towards disaster.’ Oliver Chris POST SHOW ‘Dan’s life is a compromise.’ DISCUSSION Oliver Chris POINT What do you think Oliver means by this? How does this change as the play unfolds? Oliver Chris 7 CONTENTS BACKGROUNDPRODUCTIONRESOURCES LARRY – Rufus Sewell ‘What d’you have to do to get a bit of intimacy around here?’ Larry – Act 2, Scene 7 Larry is a doctor – a dermatologist. Unlike the other characters, Larry’s background is working- class. When we meet Larry he is working for the NHS. As the play progresses, he takes a job at a private practice and wonders whether this might make him a ‘sell-out’. ‘Larry’s journey through the play is nicely represented in the discussion about his jumper in the Gallery scene: ‘I’ve never worn cashmere before, I feel like Cinderella at the Ball.’ He has Zoé Ford, worked exceptionally hard to become a doctor but still, perhaps, Resident Assistant Director feels a little uncertain of the status this job affords him. He is from a working class background and comes full circle through the play moving from the NHS, to private medicine and back to the NHS again – a journey triggered by falling in love with Anna and wanting to give her the life he believes she deserves. He is a wonderful doctor and subsequently has the observance to make him the most astute of the characters – there are many moments throughout the play where he throws startlingly sharp insight onto situations.’ Larry is often portrayed as older than the other characters. He was, he says, in flares when Alice was in nappies. He also seems to be more capable of controlling his feelings and ruthlessly competent in manipulating events – and people – to suit his purpose. ‘I think a strong part of Larry’s identity is that he doesn’t come from a background that doctors usually come from. He’s aware of his identity. He’s proud. But it comes with a certain complexity.’ Rufus Sewell POST SHOW ‘You forget you’re dealing with a clinical DISCUSSION observer of the human carnival.’ POINT Larry As Dan and Anna’s relationship collapses, Dan says that Larry truly ‘understands’. Later, Larry taunts Dan, saying ‘You don’t know the first thing about love because you don’t understand compromise.’ What is that Larry understands? How does this affect his attitudes and behaviour? 8 CONTENTS BACKGROUNDPRODUCTIONRESOURCES ANNA – Nancy Carroll ‘They love the way we make them feel but not ‘us’.