August 20, 2008 Special Sections » Fall Guide

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A Tarantino film on stage 

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So the accent and the idiom are not making things more difficult.

Gentile: No, I've done three McDonagh shows already, so I'm familiar with the northern dialect. He usually puts all his plays near Inishmore or Galway, which is a similar regionalism in the Irish dialect. Fortunately, I got the training for that when I was in undergraduate and graduate school. So language is secondary right now. Just trying to focus on the meat and potatoes of it, buddy.

Where do you put this in the McDonagh canon among the things that you've done?

Gentile: This is by far the most fucking ridiculous thing that I've ever read of his -- and by ridiculous, I mean brilliant. My favorite is still The Pillowman, just because it has that dark edge to it. But this reminds me of a Tarantino film on stage. Just the gore and the sheer idiocy of these people. Chip kind of nailed it when he said that after all is said and done, everything is kind of pointless. This is by far the most heinous McDonagh role that I've ever even tried to tackle.

I did do The Lonesome West with the two brothers, Valene and Coleman. I played Coleman, who chopped the ears off his brother's dog when they were kids to shut the dog up and then exposes it to him in a paper bag that he keeps in the closet. But that ain't got shit on this.

Dave! How many people had to corner you in order to get you to play this role? Or are you naturally up for being suspended upside down for 12 minutes?

Decker: I just want to include a disclaimer that, during the audition process, I told him what he was in for, and he still came back.

Dave Blamy: When I read this script, I knew I wanted to be a part of it in any way, shape, or form. I didn't care who it was.

Obviously!

Blamy: I'm kind of intrigued by it because this is far and away the most physically demanding thing that I've had to even think about doing -- even though it was possible. That is stretching me, no pun intended. No, I didn't have any reservations about it just because I wanted to be a part of this.

So how far are you along toward being confident that you can actually pull this off?

Blamy: As we speak, I'm probably about three quarters of the way there. We're still working on different riggings and how to get me up and down. But the actual hanging upside down -- Chip provided me with an inversion table, which I've been using daily, and that's helped. It's kind of like training for any marathon or any kind of physical activity you are going to do. You start out slowly and build every day or couple of days, being really aware of your body.

I can't imagine the rehearsal process of all of this.

Decker: We don't have the luxury in this one of me being able to go, "OK, let's stop and talk about this moment." Because Dave is literally -- his head is turning purple, and his eyes are bugging out by that time.

So are you rehearsing it in chunks?

Decker: He'll be suspended today, hopefully, for the full amount of the time. I'm hoping. And basically, we do a lot of talking before we hang him up. Because once he hangs, it's like, go! They can't stop. So we talk about the moments afterwards. It's not like a normal rehearsal process. You've really got to be aware of his abilities, upside down. When his eyes start to flutter and water, we know that it's time that he's got to come down.

Blamy: When I start reciting lines from other plays...

Is your transition from that role to the role of one of the IRA hitmen part of the challenge?

Blamy: Yeah, I definitely think it is. I have to find a totally different physicality, a different voice certainly. To be honest, I'm grateful that we're starting with these upside down scenes first, getting those out of the way first.

Do you have lines while all this is happening?

Blamy: While I'm upside down? Yeah, plenty of them. And then when he cuts me down, I have several more lines, which at the current stage of my training is a little bit strange. Because everything is kind of spinning, and I'm really kind of lightheaded trying to remember these lines.

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