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Introductory remarks made to the acting company on the first day of rehearsal
Fuddy Meers is an idiosyncratic play; it is a peculiar play…and, please know, I intend this to be a positive observation! On the whole it is singular and distinctive, yet in part it is conventional and typical. Its style is elusive, difficult to pigeonhole. One has the feeling that the play is not always what it seems it should be; it often defies expectations, and quite deliciously so. Some understanding of its style can perhaps be gleaned from the playwright’s list of influences; among his influences he includes: John Guare, Edward Albee, Georges Feydeau, Eugène Ionesco, Kaufman and Hart, and the 1930s screwball comedy films My Man Godfrey, Twentieth Century, and the films of Preston Sturges, Frank Capra, the Marx Brothers, and Abbott and Costello. The absurdist, wacky provenance of our play can be clearly recognized in the above works, but the gravity of purpose and the tenderness that is at the center of the play, arises from somewhere else. We can feel at moments, in the midst of the comic inanity of the piece, a strong yearning for something that is absent; it is, perhaps, the urge of the human heart and soul searching for a safe place to be; a place where some little sense and a modicum of order can be found; where there is a moment’s clarity in the nonsense. Where this safe haven might be found is a major theme of the play—we’ll discuss this later.
With this as a prologue, I’d like to now talk with you about how I have come to understand the stylistic and thematic landscape of this unusual and surprising piece; this understanding will, I hope, guide our process of giving breath to these characters and solidness to the world they inhabit.
In search of the nature of the play
As I inferred above, Fuddy Meers, is a commingling of styles. I have recognized four that I would like to talk about now.
1. Fuddy Meers is a farce.
Some definitions of farce:
All these definitions in some way apply to our show but there is something to this last definition that is particularly useful to our understanding of the play. Fuddy Meers is indeed made of “mingled ingredients.” I like this idea!
I think it is safe to say, that a play is likely to fit comfortably into the category of farce, if it contains a character who has, in combination, a lisp, a limp, a mangled ear, is deaf in one ear and blind in one eye (Phillip); and has a friend who has a speaking puppet attached to his hand (Millet). And that’s before any consideration of the clearly improbable nature of its plot!
2. Fuddy Meers is a murder mystery, but without a murder!
A definition of murder mystery:
The University of Tennessee | College of Arts & Sciences | UTK Theatre Department | Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 | 865-974-5161
